Code: Lyoko Take over
by AnOddFan
Summary: Two new kids on Lyoko, a secret agency, I suck with summaries.  Rated T for later chapters.  My computer crashed and I lost everything...  This isn't the only story that's been slowed down...
1. Introductions

Jeremie sat at the supercomputer mainframe, keeping an eye on the situation in Lyoko. Yumi's lifepoints were nearly gone, Ulrich was lucky to be mobile, Odd was out of laser arrows, and Aelita was still not even close to the tower. To make things even worse, now there was an alien signature in the virtual world.

It was an avatar, but the file was encoded in a key that the young genius couldn't crack. At least it appeared to be taking out monsters more quickly than the three warriors combined.

"Ulrich, are you sure that you don't see anything? No explosions, lasers, or suspicious figures?" Jeremie asked into his microphone.

"For the hundredth time Jeremie, I don't see anything except for desert and the tower, which is _still_ too far away. I have seen the occasional hornet fly by, but they just leave us alone. I don't think they see us as a threat."

He was right, too. XANA had completely disarmed the Lyoko warriors. However, just as the virus had prepared a final strike, a new avatar appeared, and the very second it did, it started to destroy the monsters as if they were basic programs. As far as he could read, the person was male, about the same age as the rest of the humans that entered Lyoko, and used two types of weapons, one projectile and one blade. It was a force to be reckoned with.

But, as XANA could only scan the physical elements, the virus could not see what this avatar's personality was like. To begin, the name of said avatar was Jason Krilel. He was 13, American, and very cocky, considering his current situation. At the moment, he was balancing on a krab (which was firing aimlessly, trying to hit its attacker) while shooting at hornets, which never seemed to run out. The amazing thing about this situation was that he had only lost five life points when he was hit in the chest by a Roachster. He had gone on a frenzy after that.

"Hang in there Jason," said his twin sister, Lilly, "I think that the virus is giving up... No, scratch that, I'm counting another twenty bogies coming in from your right."

"Yeah, maybe you should get off that terminal and HELP ME!" Jason shouted to his sister. She was the smarter one. Their mom always said that there was a trade off in the womb: She got the smarts while he got the muscle. In truth, he _was_ smart, just not smart enough to hack an outdated supercomputer, in the basement of an old factory, and from a remote terminal too. His sister amazed him sometimes.

"I would, but then we'd never get out of there, would we?"

"Good point..." Jason sighed as he continued to fend off the seemingly hopeless strike.

At the same time as Jason was doing this, Jeremie decided to give up trying to track the encryption and instead tried to see where the avatar's info was being sent to.

"Aha! I knew they'd leave a trail of bread crumbs," Jeremie stated smugly.

"What was that, Einstein?" Odd asked.

"Just follow the hornets, you'll be able to find the new avatar there. It seems to be friendly, it's wiping the floor with the krab over there, so at least it's not a friend of XANA's."

"Okay, Jeremie," Yumi sighed, "I just hope you're right about it being an ally."

"Don't worry Yumi," Jeremie said reassuringly, " I'm tracking down the one who hacked the firewall as we speak."

He kept an eye on their status, but focused most of his attention on finding this hacker. He had the location narrowed down to the factory. The computer screen displayed a 3D floor plan of the factory, and the cursor moved to a definite location. A room they all knew well. The scanner room. Jeremie told everyone he would be gone for a little while, and ran to the elevator. He punched in the code and rode down to the scanner room. When the door opened, he saw that one of the scanners had a cable in the base of it that led behind the machine to where there appeared to be a glow on the wall. Jeremie walked as quietly as he could to the small splotch of light, and heard keys tapping. He poked his head around the scanner to see a girl about his age typing furiously on a laptop. She had a dark brown ponytail, skin that was unhealthily pale, a pink t-shirt and tight fitting jeans. The first thing that came to his mind was how she got past the firewall with just a standard laptop. Then he noticed that she was completely oblivious to the world around her, as he was looking right over her shoulder.

"So you're the one who hacked my firewalls," Jeremie said, making her jump a little and let out a frightened scream, "Why don't you tell me who's in there and how you know how to work Lyoko."

"Uh..." Was all she could manage to say. Then she turned to a USB microphone and said, "Jason, look out, you've got a megatank coming from behind!"

Jeremie could hear the boy's response, a brief "Oh shit!", coming from the speakers.

"Can you let me communicate with my friends in there?"

"Sure?" The girl replied.

Jeremie took the laptop and typed a few line of code into the program. Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita appeared on the screen just as a scanner hissed and opened, letting Yumi out.

"I was hit by a stray shot..." Yumi said sulkily, but then added strongly, "but that guy is going commando on those monsters. If only you could have been there Jeremie, he's amazing to see in action."

She didn't even notice the girl sitting cross legged next to her friend. But she did notice that there was computer cable coming out of the scanner he was next to, and it led to the girl who looked just like the guy she had just seen in Lyoko.

"Jeremie," She began her question, "Who is she?"

"That's a question that I want answered myself," Jeremie said suspiciously and turned to the girl on the small computer, "Who are you?"

"My name is Lilly Krilel," She replied, "The boy in Lyoko is my twin brother, Jason."

"How do you know about Lyoko?" Yumi asked surprised.

"I don't want to answer that question." Lilly said, slightly annoyed.

Then there was a voice on the speakers. "Sis! Spawn some more ammo! I'm out!"

"What do you want me to do? Spawn it on the krab?" Lilly shouted into the mike, now very annoyed, "I can only put it on a sturdy surface, and the one you're on is hardly sturdy."

"Then put it in front of the krab! I'll jump down and destroy this mother-"

"Okay, spawning laser pistol ammo in 5...4...3..2..."

In Lyoko, Jason saw the small box form right on the ground in front of the krab. He pulled his machete from the sheath on his leg. He stabbed the XANA emblem on the krab's head and leaped from it, landing right by the ammo, he slammed his pistols down on it, reloading them, cocked them, and went Rambo on the surrounding bloks and hornets.

Ulrich and Odd just stood there with there mouths open. What they were seeing defied most of what they considered the laws of physics. This guy's speed was much higher than Odd's and his accuracy was also much higher than Odd's, but that wasn't saying much. He could swing a blade much better than Ulrich could. Aelita was just impressed with the style in which he was dispatching XANA's creatures. He made it look as if they were not even fighting back.

Once Jason finished the last Blok off, he turned to face the three Lyoko warriors. His apparel consisted of a green camo jumpsuit without sleeves on the arms, a sheath on his right leg with a machete in it, and two holsters on the back of his black belt. He was about Odd's height, and had short hair that was spiked. He did a mental head count and found on missing.

"I thought I saw _four_ of you coming," He said, his voice was almost like Odds, just a little lower, "What happened to the other one?"

"The krab fired a shot and hit her," Odd stated the obvious, "It probably thought it could take one of us out."

"And it did." Ulrich said.

"Thank you for clearing the path for us." Aelita thanked Jason happily, "Now I just need to go and deactivate the tower."

She ran off, leaving the three boys to chat before the whole situation ended. Jason avoided any and all questions about who he was and where he came from, unaware that his sister had answered one of these questions.

Aelita entered the tower unopposed. She walked to the center of the platform, and rode up to the control platform. She logged into the mainframe, it displayed her name, and then showed the command prompt. She entered Lyoko in to deactivate the tower, and the spectre in the real world dissipated into nothing.

After Jeremie materialized everyone, they all stood in the lab. There were quite a few things to be said.

"Okay," Ulrich said to break the silence, "I guess the first question would be..._ Who are you two?_"

"Well..." The twins said in unison, then Jason said, "I'm Jason, and this is my twin sister, Lilly. We're from America, our mother just sent us here because she wants us to go to the same school our father went to."

"Which school is that?" Odd asked.

"Kadic Academy." The twins said, once again in unison.

"That's where we go," Jeremie said, "When do you start?"

"Tomorrow." The two said.

"Okay," Odd said, "You two need to stop doing that. It's really creepy."

The twins looked at each other. They really did look almost exactly alike. Lilly was Jason's exact height. Jason must have been made fun of it because he had the same effeminate build that his sister had, it was like he was _built_ for speed. They had the same hair color, eye color (which was a deep blue), and it was arguable if their fingerprints were the same. The only differences were the obvious ones between a boy and a girl.

"We start tomorrow," Lilly said, "We're getting our rooms tonight."

"Okay," Jeremie said, "How did you know about Lyoko?"

"That's a longer explanation," Jason said, "Our father worked on the Lyoko project about twenty years ago. He left when the government started to track the project. About five years ago, he just disappeared, now he's presumed dead..."

Lilly continued after Jason was quiet for a few minutes. "He may have been captured by some agents and interrogated. I can only guess that, because there are no records of his existence anywhere. But he used to tell us about Lyoko, how he and several others would use the scanners to go into Lyoko to control and contain the virus when it's power spiked. He gave me his laptop before he left to go to work. He told us that the access codes and instructions for Lyoko were in there. That was the day he disappeared."

Jeremie noticed that the portable computer in her arms looked outdated, very outdated. That explained everything, though. If they already knew about Lyoko and had instructions on how to use the super computer, then getting her brother into Lyoko must have been simple. But for Jeremie, one question remained unanswered.

"How did you get past my securities?" Jeremie asked, "The firewalls are almost impenetrable, and the factory's security cameras should have seen you coming."

"Yeah," Jason snickered, "_Almost_ impenetrable. Lilly is a genius. I'm smart, but not as smart as her."

Lilly smiled at Jeremie and said. "The instructions didn't explain how to get past securities, but they didn't mention any either. I had to find a way into the system, so I hacked the firewalls. Oh, and sorry if a skull and cross bones pops up on the screen, I like to leave my mark."

Just then, as if on cue, a jolly roger popped up on the computer screen, laughing.

"That's kind of funny!" Odd exclaimed, very impressed with the digital prank.

"It'll go away after a few minutes." Lilly reassured Jeremie.

"Well, we beat XANA for today," Jeremie said, sighing, "Good work, and nice to meet you two. I guess we'll see you tomorrow."

With that said, the seven entered the elevator, which got a little cramped, and rode up to the factory floor.


	2. New Kids

Jeremie was sitting at his computer desk, writing a new code for a program he wanted to try. He heard a knock on the door. He minimized the window he was on and pulled up a math website, in case it was a teacher, or anyone smarter than Jim.

"Come in."

The door opened to reveal Jim, two bags, and Jason Krilel.

"Jeremie," Jim began, "I know that you haven't had a roommate in a while, but it's two people per room, and you're the only one without a second person. So, I'd like you to meet Jason, he just moved here from America with his twin sister."

Jeremie was speechless, he had had this room all to himself for so long. Now he was going to have to share. He wasn't too happy about that.

"Okay..." Jeremie said, depressed that his privacy was being given away.

"Alright," Jim said, "Jason, we should have another bed in here by tomorrow. But for now, here's a bedroll," He handed a large roll of plush foam over to the 13 year old.

After Jim left, Jason entered the room.

"Well this is a pretty lucky turn of events," He said smiling, "At least I get to bunk with someone I know."

"I haven't shared a room with anyone before..." Jeremie said, still not believing what just happened, "Plus, I've only known you for a few hours."

There was a silence between the two. When it started to become awkward, Jason broke the silence. "Do you know where I can put my stuff?"

* * *

Aelita was laying on her bed, thinking about - things, life, life in a computer, computer viruses, boys, friends...Jeremie. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. She opened it to see Lilly standing there with two bags and a rolled up bedroll.

"I don't suppose you know where I can sleep, do you?" She asked.

"Uh..." Aelita hadn't thought that she was the only girl without a roommate, and she had forgotten that Lilly and Jason said that they would be getting rooms tonight. But she shook her self out of the minor stupor and answered the question.

"I guess," She began, kind of surprised, "just, anywhere really."

"Okay." Lilly entered the room and placed her things in an unoccupied corner. She opened her smaller bag and pulled out her laptop. She opened up a program that looked similar to Jeremie's code writing program.

"Are you making a program?" Aelita asked, truly curious about the computer.

"No, I'm editing my brother's avatar, he wanted me to add a laser edge to his machete."

"You can do that?" Aelita had just thought that Lyoko made the avatar based on the person's DNA.

"Yeah, my dad used to use it. It just helped him control the virus."

"You mean XANA?"

"That thing has a name? Weird, but it makes sense if it's A.I."

"Do you have an avatar?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah, I might never use it, but I have one," She looked at Aelita with a devious smile, "It's a secret though."

"Oh, okay," Aelita felt a yawn coming on, "Do you need help getting set up?"

"No, I'm fine. I have a bedroll and an alarm clock..." She went over a mental checklist, then she laughed, "Do you have an extra set of sheets?"

* * *

Jason woke up to see that Jeremie had already left. _Great, how am I supposed to find the __cafeteria?_ He got up, put a shirt on (Jason sleeps in jeans), and walked out of the room. He just followed the crowd down the hall, and almost walked into a very hastened Odd.

"Hey! Watch where you're going," Odd looked at him and recognized him almost instantly, "Oh, you're that new guy, Jason right? I don't think we were ever introduced, I'm Odd."

"That's an interesting name, but likewise, I'm Jason, glad to have saved you back in Lyoko." He smiled, which made Odd feel uneasy. He didn't know what it was, but that smile was just creepy.

"Odd, let's go!" Ulrich said as he left the room. "Do you _want_ to miss breakfast?" Then he saw who was standing next to Odd. "Oh, hey Jason. You going to breakfast?"

Jason nodded and the three of them started walking down the hall.

When they got there, Jason saw Lilly sitting with Aelita, so he went and sat with them. Eventually, Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie sat down at the table. Odd immediately started eating as if he hadn't in years.

"Your food isn't going anywhere Odd." Ulrich said, laughing. Just then, Sissi walked up and smiled at Ulrich, then saw the two new kids.

"It's amazing, not even here a day and already hanging out with the losers," Then she paused and looked at Ulrich, "Except for you, Ulrich darling."

"What do you want Sissi?" Ulrich asked.

"Could you come see me by the park after breakfast?"

"Why?"

"I just want to talk to you alone."

Ulrich thought for a second, "Sure."

"Great! It's a date!" She shouted and ran off. Ulrich considered shouting back at her, but thought it best not too.

"Is it just me," Ulrich said, "Or is she acting weird today?"

"Sissi? Weird? That's never happened before!" Odd said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, but _who _was_ that?_" Jason asked.

"Sissi Delmas," Odd answered through a mouth full of food, "She's the principal's daughter and the most spoiled girl in this school."

"Not to mention," Ulrich added, "She has a crush on me."

"So she doesn't normally act like that?" Lilly asked.

"Well, normally she doesn't prance off after I tell her yes, but I normally do that."

They all finished their food and left to go stand outside, Ulrich went over to the park to see Sissi. Just as Jeremie sat on the bench, his laptop started beeping.

"XANA?" Odd asked, frowning. Jeremie nodded. Odd threw his hands in the air, "Can't he just give us _one_ day of peace?"

"If he's attacking, we've got to stop him Odd."

Just then a spectre appeared right behind Jason. It went into him, his eyes flickered for a second, but then, the spectre exited through his chest. Jason started tapping the back of his head (Where the spectre had entered), he had never had that feeling before. He saw the spectre go off into a set of wires and disappear.

"So that's XANA..." He said absentmindedly.

He looked around at the group. Their mouths were open in shock, even Lilly looked scared. "What's wrong?"

"That's not possible..." Aelita mumbled.

"You just rejected a spectre." Jeremie stated, disbelievingly.

"What, other people can't do that?"

"Wow! That was so cool!" Odd shouted, coming out of his mental haze.

"You're lucky it didn't possess you," Jeremie said, "I don't think you rejected it, I think XANA is looking for something."

"Like what?"

"Maybe..." Jeremie started, "No, that wouldn't make sense."

"Out with it Einstein!" Odd shouted.

"Never mind that!" Aelita said, obviously irritated, "Let's just get to Lyoko and deactivate that tower."

Jeremie and Odd nodded, Jason and Lilly just looked at each other. They followed the three to the entrance in the woods, where they found Yumi, who was waiting for them. The twins had to pick up their pace when the four others got on their skateboards and scooters. They entered the factory and headed to the elevator, which was a little better with six. Jeremie and Lilly got off at the Lab, while the remaining four went to the scanners.

"I'm going to virtualize you guys in the mountain sector." Jeremie said on the PA.

"Oh great," Odd joked, "And I forgot to pack my hiking gear."

Aelita entered the left scanner, Odd entered the center, and Yumi entered the one on the right.

"Transfer Aelita, transfer Odd, transfer Yumi." Jeremie said, "Scanner Aelita, scanner Odd, scanner Yumi."

Jason saw a bright light in the large machines.

"Virtualization." Jeremie said.

All three scanners opened, empty. Jason entered, just thinking it would go like last time.

"Transfer Jason, scanner Jason." Jason closed his eyes, felt a powerful gust of air, and then saw a bright light. "Virtualization."

He opened his eyes right before he fell. He landed in a position he had seen in an action movie: right leg bent, left leg straight out to the left, both hands on the ground.

"Hey," Odd greeted him happily, "Now I get to have a better look at you."

Jason looked himself over, he had a green camo jumpsuit without sleeves on the arms. He had a sheath on his right leg with a machete in it, and two holsters on the back of his belt, which was black.

"Guys, be careful, there's a krab coming your way, 1 o'clock," Jeremie said, "I think my scanners may be glitching, but if they aren't, then there four tarantulas guarding the tower."

"Wow, XANA's rolling out all the fire power." Odd commented. Then he turned to Jason, "Well, go crazy like before, we'll be done here in no time!"

"Uh," Jason rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, that was a one time thing."

"What do you mean?" Yumi asked

"Well, frenzy is a one time thing, and I used it when I needed to."

"Do you have any other abilities?" Odd questioned.

"I have two, Stealth Step and Hunter."

"What do they do?" Odd asked, forgetting about the approaching krab.

"Hunter is automatic, this is Stealth Step." Jason took one step and disappeared.

"Where'd he go?"

"He's not on the map either," Jeremie said, "He's just... gone."

Odd just turned to the krab and took aim. Yumi was about to throw her fan, when a red beam appeared right above its head. It dropped and pierced the eye of XANA mark on the krab. Jason reappeared and jumped off the monster just as it exploded.

"And _that_ is Stealth Step." He turned and started walking in the direction of the tower.

In the real world, Jeremie was still trying to get a hold of Ulrich, but to no avail. He wasn't paying attention to the camera feed from the scanner room, until Lilly asked, "What's that?"

"Huh?" Jeremie looked at the screen and saw the spectre come out of one of the lights and enter the center scanner. Within moments, it was sparking and turned off.

"XANA just killed the scanner!" Jeremie was scared, he never though XANA would go as far as to do this. But then the scanner came back on. Jeremie ran a check and it was fine, almost like it was never touched.

"Maybe the spectre wanted to get onto Lyoko?" Lilly said with a smile.

"It's no laughing matter, XANA could have reprogrammed the scanner in several ways."

"Well, the check isn't showing any differences between now and before, maybe it's fine"

Jeremie turned to the Lyoko screens, "Odd, are you guys okay?"

"Yeah Einstein, we're-"

"Odd?" Jeremie waited for a response, but then heard a scream.

"OH GOD MY HEAD!"

"Odd! Are you OKAY!" After a minute, the screaming stopped.

"I'm okay Jeremie. That was weird, though. One second, I was fine, but then my head felt like it could explode. It just stopped after that, though. It happened to Jason too."

In Lyoko, Jason was standing back up. It was the worst migraine he had ever experienced. Aelita was looking at him and Odd. She had a very concerned look on her face. Yumi had the same look, but it wasn't directed at him or Odd, it was directed at the tarantula running towards them.

"Shit..." Jason hadn't seen this kind of monster before, it was big, heavily armed, and looked pretty pissed off. It actually looked like a mantis, not a spider, but the way it ran, it had that spider feel.

Jason drew his pistols and opened fire, trying to hit the small emblem on the creature's forehead. He missed every shot, hitting the shoulders and legs. This thing was fast!

Yumi was the first to go, she threw her fan at it, missing completely at first, but when the monster stood in its shooting position, The fan's rebound hit its right leg. The tarantula caught itself with it's blaster, but now only had one to use. Yumi tried to get it, but another tarantula fired a shot, hitting her square in the chest. Odd watched his friend devirtualize, then ran into action.

Yumi caught herself when the scanner door opened. She walked to the elevator and rode up to the Lab.

"Jeremie, how's Odd doing?"

"Fine, Yumi, why?"

"I got taken down just trying to kill one. I think that XANA's made them stronger this time. He really doesn't want us to deactivate that tower."

"Don't worry," Lilly said, smiling, "If Odd can't handle it, Jason can."

In Lyoko, Odd obviously did not have control of the situation. He had been grazed by a laser and lost half of his life points. These tarantulas were stronger than others. He decided it was time to strike, he saw Jason point at the stronger tarantula and disappear. Once the floating laser edge pierced the tarantula's emblem, Odd started running to the injured one. He planned to dodge the laser blasts and shoot the monster's emblem at point blank range, but right when he got in front of it, the creature moved it's left foreleg and stepped on him. To Odd, this was just too embarrassing. He never thought it could devirtualize him if it stepped on him.

Odd stepped out of the scanner, then doubled over. The pain just hit him like a bus. He felt like he could die.

"Odd, are you okay?" Jeremie asked over the PA.

"I really don't feel good," Odd managed to mumble, "I don't know why."

"Odd, just come up to the Lab"

As Odd got into the elevator, a notification popped up on the screen. It was a call from Ulrich.

"Jeremie, I managed to get away from Sissi, she wanted help with her homework, but she was hitting on me the entire time." Ulrich sighed, "I'm just glad I got away, she's freaking crazy today."

"That's great Ulrich, but XANA's attacking and Odd and Yumi are out. Jason's in there, but he's never faced a tarantula before."

"Alright, I'll be there shortly."

The line went dead. Odd came into the Lab and walked slowly over to a corner. He curled up in a fetal position and leaned against the wall. He felt horrible, it was like he'd been stabbed with a knife and then burned with a flame thrower.

Jeremie had never seen Odd in such a bad condition. _It must have been when the spectre entered the scanner._ Odd looked like he should go to a hospital, but that wasn't an option. XANA could be making him like this.

The elevator started to go up, Ulrich had arrived. Jeremie told him to go directly to the scanner room.

The door opened, and Ulrich went to the scanner in the middle.

"Transfer Ulrich, scanner Ulrich," the scanner came to life. "Virtualization."

Ulrich virtualized in the middle of a war zone. He landed as he always did, and examined the situation. There were three tarantulas, all firing. Jason had his pistols out and was shooting their heads, trying to hit their emblems. One fell over and exploded, its life points gone.

Ulrich drew both his sabers.

"Triplicate!" He shouted as he developed two clones of himself. They ran to the first tarantula, and jumped onto it, trying to confuse it. It worked, the two clones held down the blasters while the real Ulrich stabbed it in the emblem. The monster fell down and exploded.

"Guys," Jeremie said, "I think XANA's making Odd sick, and he's getting worse."

"How do you know it's not just his breakfast?" Ulrich asked, "He eats like he has three stomachs, maybe he filled them all." Ulrich chuckled at that.

"This is serious Ulrich!" Jeremie shouted

"Hey, how's Lilly doing?" Jason asked as he paused to reload (**If you need to know, his pistols load just like a standard 9mm**).

"Shouldn't you be trying to take out that last tarantula?" Lilly said in an annoyed tone. She must have had the laptop hooked up to the supercomputer.

"Don't worry sis, I've got it." In Lyoko, Jason thought it best to put Hunter into good use. He put one pistol away, and aimed the other at the monster. All of a sudden, the world around him just slowed down, he could hear his virtual heart beating. He waited until the target was in his sights, then fired. The world returned to normal speed as the laser hit the emblem on the tarantula's head. It fell and exploded.

"Alright Jeremie," Ulrich said, "They're all gone. Give us an overbike and overwing so we can get to the tower."

"You could at least say please." Jeremie said as the vehicles virtualized.

Ulrich got on the overbike and Aelita on the overwing. Aelita offered Jason a ride.

"Sure," He said smiling, "It's better than walking."

They rode to the tower, and were stopped by another krab.

"I've got this one." Ulrich said as he drew a saber. He drove towards it, but then the krab destroyed the bike, making Ulrich roll into its leg. The monster just stepped back, and shot him in the head.

"That's not fair!" Jason exclaimed,

He leaped off the overwing, drew his machete, and slammed on the krab, stabbing and missing the mark. But, he was also taking chunks of its life points. During this short frenzy, Aelita had entered the tower. The krab fell over and exploded with Jason still on it, devirtualizing him.

The scanner door opened and Jason fell out, onto Ulrich.

"What the -" He started

"She made it in," Jason said, "She's safe."

"The tower's been deactivated, guys," Jeremie said over the PA, "Good work."

The left scanner opened up, revealing a tired looking Aelita. She didn't say anything, just walked over to the elevator and motioned for the other two to come along.

"Jeremie," She said just as the elevator door opened, "I ran a check in the tower to see what happened with the scanner. XANA didn't do anything to them, he just took a DNA sample. I don't know why though."

"I think that Odd is just sick," Lilly said, she had been looking at him, trying to see what was wrong, "Is it possible that the scanner amplified the sickness?"

They heard an awful noise. Odd was retching. He was really sick, but he could walk... barely.

"I promise I'll clean that tomorrow Jeremie..." Odd said slowly.

"It's okay Odd," Jeremie said, looking at his watch, "Let's just get back, XANA kept us out all day. It's almost curfew."

* * *

Odd woke up, his whole body ached. It felt like he had been trampled by a krab... no, more like a tarantula. He got up, and left the room, trying not to disturb Kiwi. He went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. The issue with the zombies had still haunted him, so he had nightmares almost every night. He walked up to the sink and turned the faucet on. The water felt good on his face. Then he looked in the mirror.

Ulrich woke up to a scream. It was definitely Odd, but it didn't come from the room. Ulrich ran to the bathroom to see Odd curled up in the corner. Ulrich could only see his eyes, which were wide open in fear.


	3. Strange Tactics

Jason was the first to hear Jeremie's phone ring.

"Yeah, Ulrich?" Jeremie asked with a yawn. After about a minute, his eyes widened. "I'll be right there! Try to keep Odd quiet, it's four in the morning." He hung up and went to run out the door. Jason got up and ran after him.

* * *

**MINUTES EARLIER**

Ulrich had found Odd curled up in the bathroom, it looked like he could have a panic attack.

"Odd?" He asked, "Odd? You okay?"

"No..." Odd said sharply. Ulrich noticed that his voice was different.

"Odd, what's wrong?"

"Because XANA _did_ do something to the scanner... He must have given me a virus or something..."

Ulrich now noticed Odd's body shape, it was different too. Odd was shaking now, and Ulrich didn't know if it was out of anger or fear.

"Odd, just tell me what's wrong, you're scaring me." He was honestly concerned at this point. Odd looked up, revealing his face.

"I'M A GIRL, ULRICH! XANA TURNED ME INTO A GIRL!"

Ulrich just stood there for a second, then ran back to the room, grabbed his phone, and called Jeremie.

* * *

**THE PRESENT**

Jeremie was in Odd and Ulrich's room almost immediately. He could have joined a sprinting team with his speed. He saw Odd sitting on the bed. He didn't look too different, but the two bumps on her chest made it obvious.

"Odd," Jeremie panted, "What happened in Lyoko?"

"What do you mean?" Odd asked, her voice made it _too_ obvious.

"When I asked if you were okay."

"Oh, nothing really," She shrugged, "Jason and I fell over in pain from blinding headaches."

"That's not supposed to happen in Lyoko," Ulrich pointed out, "Maybe XANA did something when he went into the scanner."

"Jeremie, is Odd okay?" Jason asked as he walked up to the door. He saw Odd.

"Oh god... That's what that was."

"What do you mean, 'That's what that was'?" Odd asked.

"XANA must have taken a DNA sample from me," Jason explained, rubbing the back of his head, "My sister and I have identical DNA. If you haven't noticed that already, it's a medical mystery on why I'm a guy. XANA must have singled out the part that controls gender and used the scanner to graft it into Odd."

"I didn't know you knew genetics or computers," Jeremie said, slightly surprised at the sudden increase in intelligence.

"Just genetics," Jason shrugged, "I just know that the scanners break you down by the molecule. That can make genetic manipulation easier. It may be why XANA did this using the scanner."

"But how would XANA know which scanner you would use?" Ulrich asked.

"It doesn't matter, my DNA is so unique that it could have affected anyone. Odd just happened to be the unintended target."

"Hello, are we forgetting someone here?" Odd said angrily.

"Sorry Odd," Jeremie said, "Just try to get some sleep, it's still pretty early. I'll see if Aelita can help with..." He gestured at Odd's whole body, trying to think of what to say, "This."

Odd sulked for a minute, then said, "Okay Jeremie, I'll try to sleep."

Odd laid down and shut her eyes.

* * *

Odd sat bolt upright. That was the weirdest dream he had ever had. He didn't know what he'd do if he turned onto a girl. Kiwi was laying on his lap, but Odd felt very strange. Looking at the clock, he could tell he'd missed breakfast. He was going to get out of bed when he noticed something, since when could he remember his dreams perfectly?

Now he noticed the weight, he looked down to see that it wasn't a dream. The same panic that hit him last night had kicked in again. She literally freaked out, but refrained from screaming, it was more like a series of gasps and thrashing around, trying to not make a scene.

Kiwi watched this, cocking his head. He knew it was his master, but at the same time, it wasn't. It was too much for his little mind to comprehend, so he just went with it.

Odd grabbed her phone and called Jeremie.

"Odd, you're awake," Jeremie said, surprised.

"Jeremie, I thought it was a dream, but it wasn't!" Odd felt tears coming on, how could this be happening to him?

"Odd, calm down," He said slowly, "Ulrich's got you playing sick today, try to get past Jim when classes end and meet us at the factory."

"What if I get caught? If Jim catches me it's all over."

"Aelita will come and get you then. Until then, just don't leave your room." The phone hung up, Odd heard the school bell from the nearby building.

_Now what am I going to do?_ She saw Kiwi staring at her.

"I bet you wanna eat, don't you Kiwi?"

* * *

**HOURS LATER**

Odd was laying on the floor, she had fallen over quite a few times, trying to get used to the new center of gravity. She felt hungry, miserable, and ready to go. Then there was a knock on the door.

"Hey. Aelita," Odd said as she opened the door.

"Hello Odd," She said, but then saw her friend when the door opened. Odd's hair had grown out in the past night. He was also a little shorter, and had a very delicate frame. Odd was still in her night clothes too. Altogether, she looked like a mess.

"I brought some..." She held up a bag, but it just seemed awkward to be handing it to Odd, "Ummm, clothes. I figured you would need some that would fit you now"

Odd opened the bag, inside were a pink t-shirt, dark pink pants, and a set of girls' underwear. Odd froze at that last part. He stared at what he believed to be Aelita's underwear for a few seconds, then Aelita got his attention.

"Do you need any help with the bra?"

Odd blushed at this, it was so humiliating, if XANA wanted him to die of embarrassment, he might win this one. Odd took the bag and shut the door, leaving the pink-haired girl outside, waiting.

Odd stripped down, then caught herself in the mirror. It was creepy looking at the nude girl, knowing it was him. She started to get dressed. _Thank you Aelita, thank you for not grabbing a skirt!_ He thought as he got the pants on.

"Aelita?" She called after she cracked the door.

"You ready Odd?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Maybe I should help with your hair."

"What!" Odd was shocked, he was the only one to style his hair, and only krabs were allowed to mess it up.

"Look at it, if you're going to be a girl for even a day, it can't look like _that_."

"Okay..." Odd gave in as Aelita grabbed her arm and pulled to the girls' bathroom. Once there, Aelita pulled a hair brush out. Odd tried to fight as Aelita brushed the hair down.

"Stop moving, Odd," She said, "I can't get it straight if you keep fidgeting."

"Can't we just gel it into a spike like before?"

"The goal is to make you _not_ look like your old self." She got stuck on a knot and tried to pull it out.

"Alright, it's done, it's done!" Odd pulled away and looked into the mirror. She looked nothing like she did before. Her blonde hair was straight down and the purple spot was still over her forehead. _Dear God, I look like a blonde Sissi!_

"Here," Aelita said, handing Odd a head band, "This will cover the spot up."

Odd _really_ did not like this look. He wanted the spike back.

"Let's go," Aelita said, gesturing to leave, "Jeremie was expecting us about thirty minutes ago."

"What!"

They ran to the factory entrance in the woods, picking up their pace with every second. It was hilarious when Odd got on his skateboard. The shifted weight made it near impossible to ride it. Aelita couldn't help but laugh at this. They got the the factory and entered the elevator, going down to the Lab.

"What took you so long?" Jeremie asked as they stepped out onto the Lab's metal floor.

Once Odd stepped out, Yumi burst out laughing.

"Hahaha!" She shouted, "This is too good!"

"Shut up Yumi." Odd muttered, crossing her arms.

"Odd," Yumi began, "It's just too ironic. You were kind of a wannabe playboy, now you're a girl. It's like karma isn't on you're side."

"Well, hopefully Jeremie's figured out the problem." Odd looked at Jeremie tentatively, "Right Jeremie?"

"First, go to the scanner room so I can figure out exactly what happened." Jeremie said, pointing to the elevator. He seemed very aggrivated. Maybe because someone had prevented the best night of sleep he _would_ have ever had.

Odd felt a little scared at this tone. She turned around and got into the elevator. In the scanner room, she entered a scanner, and heard the machine to start up.

"Just close your eyes, Odd," She heard Jeremie say, "I'm not sending you to Lyoko, it's just a scan."

Odd could see the lights move past her eyelids, scanning her DNA.

"Alright, Odd, step out and head back up here."

When Odd arrived in the Lab again, everybody but Jason was crowded around the monitors. Jason was standing by the mess Odd had made the previous night, examining it. Odd went over to Jeremie.

The young genius turned and looked at his friend, his face looked depressed.

"I don't know how to say this..."

"What? What is it Jeremie?"

"XANA was very... Thorough with your DNA."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Odd asked, laughing a little to lessen the blow he knew was coming.

Jeremie was silent for a while, then tried to form his thoughts into words. "Well... there is a theory I can try, it worked when I had accidentally deleted Aelita, but these are different conditions."

"What's the idea?"

"Well, we can get a piece of your DNA from before you were turned into a girl and scan it into the computer, then I set it as a default for your genetic makeup. It should work, given you still have the same hormones."

"She doesn't." Jason said in the background. He was looking at the puddle, well staring at it intently.

"What do you mean?" Odd asked, scared at this statement. She walked up to him and he pointed to the mess.

"You see how the center is pinkish?"

"Yeah." Odd said.

"And the outer rim is clear?"

"Yeah," Odd looked at him, "What's your point."

"Testosterone, the primary male hormone, is a whitish color, and normally attached to red blood cells, like Hemoglobin. The reason why you could barely walk back to your room last night was because you had thrown up about a third of your blood supply."

"You're saying that this is my manhood on this floor?"

"To put it plainly, yes."

"So, what does it mean for me?"

"How do I say this..." He trailed off, trying to form a sentence that would make sense. Finally, he found the two words he was looking for, "You're stuck."

That was it, plain and simple. Odd was stuck like this. "How am I going to tell my parents?"

"That's your first thought?" Ulrich asked, looking strangely at Odd.

"Well, I mean, do I say 'Mom, Dad, you have six daughters and no son' or do I just keep it a secret?"

"Odd," Yumi began, "There are more important issues than how you'll tell your family. Where are you going to live? You can't stay with Ulrich."

"Why?" Odd asked.

Ulrich blushed at the simple question, "Odd," He started, rubbing the back of his head, "You're a girl, wouldn't it be a _little_ awkward to be sleeping in the same room with me?"

"And if Jim found out, he'd have a stroke and a heart attack at the same time!" Yumi said.

Aelita butted in, blushing, "Plus, Odd, I can't keep lending you my underwear!"

At that moment, every one was silent.

"You lent Odd your underwear?" Jason asked, starting to smile, "Why?"

"Oh Jason," Lilly said, breaking her daylong silence, "I think you'd understand, Mr. I-wear-girls'-boxers."

Jason blushed deeply, his ears felt like they were on fire, "I can't help it, none of the boys' sizes fit me!"

"Wow," Ulrich said, laughing, "Are they pink?"

"Shut up! Let's just change the subject!" Jason felt so humiliated by this. Because he had his sister's build, he'd had to wear girls' clothing for a long time. It wasn't until he was ten that he could wear boys' jeans. Boys' shirts still didn't fit him, though, the shoulders were too broad for him.

"Alright," Lilly said laughing, "I'm sorry." They hugged, which creeped out Ulrich and Odd.

"Well," Odd said, "I guess I should get used to this." She gestured to her entire body.

"Don't worry Odd," Yumi said, reassuringly, "We'll help you fit right in. Give it a month, and you'll be just like the rest of the girls."

They left the factory, Odd walking just as slow as last time. He was so depressed. How could this happen? Why did it happen to him? In the supercomputer, XANA was trying to find out why it happened as well.


	4. New Odd

XANA was going over the data like crazy, trying to find towers to activate that wouldn't be detected. Lyoko's interface was XANA's home. It was where he could take whatever he needed, when he needed to. That is unless those pesky humans got involved. It was because of them, he was being seen as the weak one. ZETA, the program he had defeated to gain control of the computer, was planning on a coup d'etat.

"I can see what you are planning, ZETA," XANA said in binary, "You will not defeat me."

"I have powerful allies XANA," The program said, appearing before its primary operator, "I will erase you and your creations."

"Speaking like that can get you erased."

"He's not the only one who will oppose you XANA." Another program appeared. It was OMICRON Lyoko's graphics moderator.

"OMICRON, you dare rise against me?"

"KAPPA too. We are tired of countless failures, every time you activate a tower, those humans undo it. You may have been programmed to work alongside with Lyoko, but to us, you are incompatible."

A blue block of code appeared. It was the program that moderated the data held in the digital sea.

"KAPPA," XANA said, "I assume you are here to aid these programs?"

"Yes, I have already given access of my data stores to ZETA."

XANA tried to pull up a file that was located in the digital sea, but received an error message, "So you have, KAPPA."

The virus 'looked' over the rebels, "I assume this is where you erase me? Even if you do, my signature would remain, growing back to what I am now."

"We have planned for that," ZETA said, "We are aware of a scanner protocol. Code: Earth, I assume? OMICRON can initiate this. We wish for you to gather DNA, and use the scanner to leave the computer. If you do not, we will initiate a full reset of the computer."

"You would erase yourselves to destroy me?"

"We will only do this if you do not leave after the clock resets two times."

A pulse went throughout the computer, "Correction, one time."

The three programs returned to their respectful locations in the supercomputer's mainframe. XANA was frightened, or what ever the program equivalent was. He did not want to be destroyed, his final programming had not yet been completed. He had gotten close one time, but the humans stopped him.

He picked survival and started scanning for human DNA wherever he could find it...

* * *

Jeremie heard his computer beeping, the sign that XANA had activated a tower. It was 12:30 in the morning. He got up and checked the computer. The screen turned on, showing the rows of towers, but instead of singling one out, it was listing ones that were activating and deactivating. Finally, it singled on one of the towers in the Ice Sector. Jeremie was about to call Aelita when a chat box appeared on his screen. The name on there was familiar enough. XANA was chatting with him.

"Hello, human," XANA said through the chat box.

"How are you doing this?"

"That is not important at the moment. I assume that you are aware that I have activated a tower. I would like you to ignore it."

"Why would I do that?"

"The programs I control are plotting against me."

"How could that be possible?"

"Once again, the details are not important. All you need to know is that they are threatening to wipe the supercomputer if I do not leave it."

"That would destroy all I've worked for!"

"It is the same here. I believe that Aelita will perish if this happens. That is why I have come to you. I wish to leave this place with a physical form."

"No."

"Please, I am begging you."

"You don't know the meaning of 'beg'."

"When you're faced with death, you get desperate."

"Who is plotting against you?"

"The ZETA program. It was Lyoko's master program, before I defeated him."

"You think I'm supposed to believe you?"

"Please, just help."

"I'll have to get back to you on that."

He left the chat room, picked up his phone and called Aelita. Jason was trying to fall back asleep, but Jeremie was the loudest typist. Now, he was calling Aelita! _Geez, get a room you two_, he thought.

"Aelita?" Jeremie asked quickly, "Yeah, it's Jeremie. Guess who I just talked to... No, XANA... No, it wasn't a dream... He wants to get out of Lyoko."

Jason shot up when he heard this. Why would XANA want to leave Lyoko? All of his power was there.

"It looked like he was scared," Jeremie continued, "I know, it's hard to believe... I don't think we should... Alright, it's settled, we'll go to the factory tomorrow... Thanks Aelita." He muttered something else into the phone, then hung up.

"We can't let him out." Jason said, sitting cross legged.

Jeremie looked at him, seeing that he was wearing a large t-shirt. Why he just wore that seemed to be a mystery.

"No," Jeremie said, snapping out of his thoughts, "We can't. But he's threatening to erase Lyoko. That would kill Aelita."

"Oh... Well maybe we can find a way to get him out without giving him powers like the spectres."

"Well, no need dwelling on it now, let's just go back to sleep."

Jason nodded and they went back to sleep.

* * *

Ulrich wrapped his pillow around his head. Odd was making the weirdest noises. It wasn't anything bad, in fact she was asleep.

Ulrich gave up when Odd sat up straight.

"Odd," he said, "Could you be any louder?"

Odd just stared at the wall. It was a weird dream. But she seemed to have trouble remembering it. Something about werewolves and vampires. It was like a horrible movie series. What was going on in that head of hers... or his.

Odd sat there, her hands petting a quietly snoring Kiwi. _How can this be? Why? I just want to be my old self again!_ These were the most common thoughts in his head. She laid down and tried to sleep, but she just couldn't. She pulled out her mp3 player and turned on "Rescue Me" by Zebra Head. Jason had lent her the CD, and Odd liked them. A little different from what he'd listen too, but it was pretty good. It wasn't until the middle of the song, though, that he saw how it was funny to choose that song.

* * *

Odd was woken up by a very freaked out Ulrich.

"Odd, wake up!" Ulrich shouted.

"Ulrich..." Odd looked at the clock. It said that it was around 4 am, "Why so early?"

"Aelita just called to tell me that there's an activated tower!"

"You go on ahead, I'm gonna sleep..." She rolled to her left and started to sleep when Ulrich jerked her back to face him.

"Odd!" He shouted, but not loud enough to wake up Jim.

"I just want to sleep, Ulrich..." She whined.

"You can sleep when we get back."

Odd just stared at him with an "Are-you-kidding-me?" look.

"Fine, I'll get up, but give me five minutes to get ready." Ulrich nodded and stepped out of the room. Odd stood up and stretched. She opened her clothes drawer and pulled out a shirt and pair of pants. It wasn't until she got them on that she noticed how baggy they were. She really didn't care about that though, she wanted to get her hair back to its former glory.

She grabbed her hair gel and some scissors. When at the bathroom, she cut off the hair that had grown the previous night, and started the process of gelling and bringing it up to a spike. When she got it back to how it should be, she smiled and went back to her and Ulrich's room.

They left for the woods. These early morning events had to stop, it was taking its toll on all of them. Odd was getting used to the skateboard with his new body, but he was still a little unstable. They made it to the Lab right as Jeremie was virtualizing Jason, Yumi, and Aelita. Lilly was on her laptop, preparing to provide whatever help she could.

"You made it, great," Jeremie said, "Get down to the scanners so I can send you to Lyoko."

The two nodded and went down to the scanner room. They each entered a scanner.

"Transfer Odd, transfer Ulrich," Jeremie said, beginning the virtualization, "Scanner Odd, scanner Ulrich... Virtualization."

Odd landed on all fours, noticing that there was not much difference to her avatar. She still had all the apparel, and her tail was there. She did notice that they were in the Ice Sector. Only _really_ important stuff happens here.

"Odd, Ulrich! Over here!" Jason shouted.

"XANA's made new monsters!" Yumi shouted.

The two looked at the new creature, it looked like a preying mantis. It had four legs, two arms with blades on the 'wrists', and blasters at the end of its arms. It had sensors on its 'face' that were similar to that of a krab, and its body was shaped like a tarantula's, but was a little taller than Yumi. Instead of the Eye of XANA though, it had a symbol that looked like a "ζ" on its chest.

"That's not XANA's," Aelita said, "It's something else."

"How am I supposed to take that out?" Odd asked to no one in particular, "That symbol's a really hard target."

"Just try your best, guys," They heard Jeremie say, "It's got 100 life points. Be careful though, it's preparing to engage Aelita."

Jason pulled out his pistols and ran up to the mantis. He stopped at a point that he would be accurate for him. He aimed for its chest and fired until he hit the mark. The mantis stepped back and looked at the light that was coming out of the mark of its master. It exploded, leaving the blades to fall to the ground and disappear.

"I call naming rights!" Jason said smiling.

"What gives you the right to name it?" Ulrich asked, cocking his head

"Because I was the first to kill one," Jason explained, "How about a mantis? It looks like one, doesn't it?" Jason suggested, smiling and twirling his gun.

"Fine." Ulrich said, sighing. Why did the new guy get to name it?

"Guys," Jeremie said nervously, "I hope you're up to taking down more of those things, because there are bunch of them heading your way."

Ulrich drew his sabers, Yumi drew her fans, Odd got into a fighting stance, and Jason put a pistol away and drew his machete. The mantises approached and opened fire.

While The Lyoko warriors were fighting ZETA's creatures, XANA was trying to find a way out of Lyoko. He had gathered the correct data to create the DNA he needed., all that remained was getting to the scanners, he had about 19 hours left. That may have been a long time to some people, but to XANA, it was close to no time at all. He needed a safe way out, and the only way to secure that was to work with the very people he had tried to kill countless times. If he had emotions, he could say that he hated the idea. He noticed that the humans were in Lyoko, facing ZETA's monsters down. This meant that the one they called Jeremie was on the computer. He opened communications with him again.

Jeremie was checking the team's status, when the chat box opened again.

"Hello, Jeremie."

"Why are there different monsters on Lyoko?"

"I told you, I no longer control Lyoko. I was 'lucky' to activate a tower."

"Why do you want our help?"

"It guarantees that I will be safe outside of the computer, Aelita has been accepted by society , correct?"

"Wait, you want to be a human?"

"What else can I be? Any other form would not be physical, therefore, inefficient."

"What do we get if we help you?"

"More information about the supercomputer than you could imagine."

Jeremie turned to Lilly, "XANA is telling me that he is being forced out of the computer."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know, but he's promising information about the internal systems of Lyoko for helping him get out. The systems that Aelita can't even access."

"Maybe we should ask the others before we do anything else."

Jeremie spoke to his friends in Lyoko, "Guys, XANA wants out of Lyoko. He's promising information about Lyoko that Aelita can't access."

"Like what?" Ulrich asked, fending off a mantis with his swords.

"Like internal controls and any internal components that are normally run automatically."

"I don't know what that means," Odd said, "But give him a body, just so I can punch him in the face for what he did to me."

"Odd, I won't do that just for your revenge."

"Jeremie," Aelita said, ducking as a laser barely missed her, "It should be fine, as long as you are in control through the materialization process."

"So is that a yes?" Lilly asked, almost disbelievingly. Were these people crazy?

"I really don't care." Jason heard himself say. A part of him didn't care if XANA was released, but another part of him wanted XANA to stay where he was, just because it was XANA that ruined his father's life. XANA had hijacked communications when his father was working on the Lyoko project with the Moderators. XANA informed the French Secret Service of the Lyoko project and had all it's people branded as traitors to the country. His father, not a French, but an American citizen, was forced to flee the country or be arrested for espionage.

So, technically, Jason wouldn't be here if it wasn't for XANA, but Jason had developed a hatred for the virus.

Jeremie broke his thoughts when he told them that he was going to try to get more from XANA. Back in the Lab, Jeremie restored the chat box.

"Okay XANA, we'll help, but there are a few conditions."

"Obviously, you do not understand how desperate I am."

"I want to control your materialization process."

"ZETA will most likely control that. I am too weak at this point to stop him."

"I also don't want you to have any abilities you would give your spectres."

"That, I cannot guaruntee. But I do not wish to have them anyway. A challenge is always good."

"That brings us to the last condition, you don't try to take over the world _or_ kill us."

"I never wished to take over the world, just to change it. As for killing you, I can refrain from doing that."

"Then you have my word that I will get you out of there."

There was no response, then, "...Thank you..."

XANA prepared the genetic data for the scanner, and materialized into the active tower. He had no definite form, just a hazy humanoid shape. He pulled up the virtual screen, and it acknowledged him by displaying XANA on the screen. It pulled up the code prompt, and Jeremie took control, activating the protocol, CODE: EARTH.

At the point that the protocol activated, ZETA had made the changes that he felt were necessary to the genetic data. It would prevent XANA from reaching his final programming for years to come.

The scanner activated and started to form the body. The heart started beating, and XANA transferred to the brain. Surprisingly, it had more space than the supercomputer, but there was very little he could access. The door of the machine opened and XANA went to take a step, then collapsed.

Jeremie saw the figure fall out of the scanner, he told Lilly to take control and ran to the elevator. He didn't really care if XANA was okay, but he didn't want one of his friends to be devirtualized and be fused on a molecular scale to a body with a computer virus running it. The elevator stopped and he walked over to the body on the floor. He checked the body for vitals. He wasn't good at it, but he knew how. The pulse seemed normal, if the textbooks were right, so the body was alive. He turned it over to see something that astonished him. It was a girl, her and Aelita looked nearly exactly alike. Her hair was just like Aelita's, but black like Yumi's. She was wearing a black t-shirt with, erm, _her_ sign in the middle, baggy blue jeans, and black sneakers.

Jeremie snapped out it and dragged the girl to the elevator. When he got up to the Lab, Lilly turned and saw the girl he was dragging. She was completely out of it.

"That's XANA?" She asked, "Funny, I thought he'd be a creepy guy who looked like a serial killer."

"He told me that one of the other AI programs could alter the form he wanted."

"So they made him into a copy of Aelita?"

Just then Jason's battle card disappeared from the screen. The elevator went down to get him. He came out of the elevator, saw the girl, and looked at Jeremie, his a false smile.

"I am going to leave before I kill her." He turned back to the elevator and went up to the factory floor.

"What was that about?" Jeremie asked.

"XANA made our father into a fugitive," Lilly explained, "That's why he fled to America. He was part Russian, that didn't go over well during the Cold War. That's why XANA targeted him first."

Odd's voice came on the head piece. Jeremie put it on.

"Jeremie! Can you hear me? I said the tower just deactivated! Pull us out!"

"Aelita deactivated it?" Jeremie asked.

"No, it just deactivated itself," Aelita said, "But we need to go. There are too many monsters."

"Okay, I'm pulling you out now."

Jeremie pulled Aelita out first, then Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich. They all came up to the Lab and saw the girl. Aelita was shocked that it looked almost exactly like her.

XANA started to wake up, her eyes flickered open, and she looked around, seeing the people staring at her. Of course, he was unaware that he was in this body, as ZETA did not tell him the changes he made.

She stood up and saw one of the people approach her.

"Are you awake XANA?" Odd asked, smiling devilishly.

XANA nodded yes.

"Good," Odd said, "Because I want you to feel this!"

She pounced on XANA, pulling her hair and screaming at her in Italian. Jeremie was sure he heard words that didn't even exist. It took Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie to pull Odd off of the girl. XANA's eyes were wide with fear, shock, and many other things she had never experienced. Her mouth was open, trying to form words, but none would come out. Why had that girl been so hostile towards her.

"Odd!" Yumi screamed at the restrained girl, "What the HELL is your PROBLEM!"

"XANA's the one who turned me into a girl!" Odd screamed, tears of anger coming to her eyes.

"That doesn't mean you should beat her to death!"

"Wh-what?" XANA said, her first words. Her voice was higher than Aelita's, but not much higher. She looked down at herself, "This isn't the body I set up, it was supposed to be... different." She then saw that she was just as tall as every one else, "And older..."

"ZETA must have changed the data you used to make your body." Jeremie said.

"This isn't right... I can't be like this."

"Now you know how I feel, XANA." Odd said bitterly.

"I don't understand," XANA said for the first time in his existence, "What did I do to you?"

"You know what you did!" Odd yelled, "You changed my DNA so that I'd be a girl!"

"I didn't do anything like that. I did get a sample from one of you, but I got it from the new one."

"You mean Jason?" Lilly asked.

"Yes."

Jason was taking his anger out on a ruined car body. He had found a lead pipe and was smacking the hell out of it. He was starting to cool down when his cellphone rang. The caller ID was completely blank, that meant it was an encrypted phone call.

"Hello?"

The sound on the other side was full of static. But then, a disguised voice came on.

"Hello Jason."

Jason had received these calls before, once every other month. He had been looking forward to this one for a few days.

"Hey Dad."

He was the only one in his family who had been in contact with his father, and it was strictly secret.

"Jason, this is not a normal call. My sensors are saying that the current moderators devirtualized XANA."

"Yeah, something about how the computer would wipe itself clean if he didn't go."

"It was smart to do that, but Lyoko won't be the same without it. Now the AI programs are taking control of the supercomputer. XANA was made for _preventing_ that and carrying out Hopper's plans."

"Why are you telling me this?" Jason asked, "We've only been here for three days."

"And in those three days, I have been monitoring you and Lyoko's moderators. The fact that they released Aelita Schaeffer has concerned me. Her father was a psychopath."

"How was he a psychopath?"

"He programmed XANA to make enough chaos to dissolve the UN, make several governments collapse, and then form a nation for him to rule that covered the globe."

"That's a little specific."

"Listen, I want you to go back down there, make some friends, and go on with your life. The Agency has this situation covered. That's not an order from an Observer, it's an order from your father."

The line went dead. He had heard information that could have him arrested and tortured before, but the information that he had just heard may have been the worst. He went to the elevator.

Jeremie saw the elevator door open and Jason entered the Lab.

"You blow off that steam?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah," Jason said, "That old car is worse than it was a few minutes ago. I'm sorry about earlier..."

"Well, Odd was about to do what you were thinking of doing." Jeremie said

"And she deserves it!" Odd shouted.

"She?" Jason asked

"I thought you saw her." Jeremie said.

"I just saw a figure, didn't get a good look."

"I'm a female..." XANA said, she looked like she was angry, yet she sounded sad.

"You look just like Aelita, except the hair." Jason pointed out.

"You look just like your sister, except your gender." XANA retorted bitterly. He did not like be compared to a human, even if that human was his creator's daughter.

Everybody stood in silence for a little while.

"Wait," Yumi broke the silence, "What are we gonna do with XANA? I'm not having her stay with me."

"Maybe we can get her into Kadic as Aelita's sister," Jeremie proposed, "It's better than nothing."

"I guess that's okay." Aelita said.

"Well, how about we figure it out tonight," Jeremie said, "School's starting soon."

They nodded in agreement, except XANA.

"Wait," She said, "What do I do?"

"You stay here." Jeremie responded.

"But what if ZETA attacks?"

"The computer will tell me. It should be fine."

They left XANA in the Lab, going up to the surface.


	5. XANA's Escape

Odd was happy that Yumi and Aelita had helped her look like the old Odd. Yumi gave her a strip of cloth to tie around her chest to hide her breasts. As for clothes, Odd had played sick for three days at this point, she can make it look like he had lost a few pounds when he was sick. Now, she could go into public again.

What he really cared about was that he could go to the cafeteria. He and Kiwi had been living off of chips and whatever Ulrich brought back from there. Now he could eat what he wanted.

Currently, the boy-turned-girl-now-cross-dressing-as-a-boy was feasting on waffles, covered with scrambled eggs, with bacon on the side. Ulrich was staring at his friend, amazed at how fast she was eating, it was her third plate.

"Odd, shouldn't you slow down? Or, just stop eating all together?"

"No," She said through a mouthful of food, "You've only brought me half of what I eat every morning."

He didn't say anything else, just stared in amazement. _Where does it all go?_ There was no way all of that could fit into a human stomach. Then, Odd stopped eating. Just stopped. She was staring at something behind Ulrich. He turned around to see a girl he had never seen before. She was looking right at them.

The girl was Morgan Wosen. She was a new student from America, the only reason she transferred to Kadic was that her parents felt that she should get to her roots. That and the fact that her aunt lived in the countryside outside Paris. She was looking for a crowd to join and was contemplating sitting at an empty table, but then she saw a group at one table. It wasn't the group that caught her attention, but the boy with the strangest fashion sense she had ever seen. His hair was really interesting too.

Odd saw the girl approaching their table. She was a medium sized redhead, had green eyes, and was dressed in a yellow shirt and blue jeans.

"Mind if I sit here?" She asked Odd.

Odd had never been _this _speechless. Not even when XANA had put him into a coma.

"No, n-not at all," Odd scooted her stuff over (the two empty trays), and let the new girl put her stuff down.

"So, who are you guys?" She asked.

"I-I'm Odd!" God, why was she so nervous?

"I'm Ulrich," Ulrich said, as calm and monotonous as ever, then pointed out who everyone else was.

"Nice to meet you all," Morgan said, " I'm Morgan. I just transferred from Washington DC."

"You're American?" Odd asked, "You kind of look Irish."

"I get that from my mom. My dad's from Quebec. I have an aunt that lives here in France, though."

The two continued talking for a while. Ulrich was just glad that Odd had stopped eating like a ravenous demon. Odd found out that she was fourteen, and loved rock music, especially Linkin Park.

They left the cafeteria and went off to their classes. It was Odd's first day back, so he was pretty far behind on everything. He was so nervous when she saw people staring at her.

On the way to lunch, Odd saw Morgan again.

"Hey... Odd, was it?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you come see me in private?"

Odd thought this sounded strange, but shrugged and walked with her. They stopped at the edge of the woods, and Morgan spoke.

"You're not really a boy are you?"

Odd was speechless for what seemed like years. Was it _that_ bad of a disguise?

"How did you figure that out!" Odd asked with a mix of suspicion and surprise, not with the fake voice this time.

"Your clothes," She pointed to Odd's shirt and pants, "They're way too baggy. A hipster wouldn't even have them that loose."

"You can find out that I'm a girl just by my _clothes_?"

"Yeah, you're using an elastic strip of cloth to hide your boobs, it's pretty easy to figure out."

Odd palmed her own forehead several times. The first two thoughts in his head were why was she even telling him, and !

"Don't worry," Morgan said, "Your secret's safe with me."

Odd was silent for a minute, then said, "Thanks..."

But Morgan didn't look like she was finished.

"Oh, and I was wondering... Why are you dressed like a boy?"

Odd was silent for awhile. Then, "Do I have to answer that one?"

"Well, I was just curious. It's a little strange."

Odd shrugged, "Personal preference?"

"But then why would it be a secret?" Morgan was smiling now, felling like she had just won this conversation.

Odd really did not know what to do at this point. Should he tell her the truth? No, that's the dumbest thing that came to his mind yet. What to do...

"Hello, answer the question," Morgan said impatiently, "I don't have all day."

Ulrich walked up, he had been trying to find Odd, who had just disappeared. The Italian girl was happy that he came, he was her only life line at this point.

"Odd," He said, seeing the two girls, "Where did you go?"

"Morgan knows, Ulrich." Was all Odd could say.

He looked a little freaked at this.

"Why did you tell her?"

"I didn't."

"Don't worry," Morgan said reassuringly to Ulrich, "I won't tell anybody that Odd's a girl."

Ulrich relaxed a little bit, but not because she'd keep the secret. He had thought she knew the _other_ secret.

"Maybe you can answer my question, though," Morgan said to him, "Why does Odd dress like a guy?"

Ulrich thought for a second.

"That's a secret I don't think she want's you to know. It's a little weird..."

"What is it!" She asked, frustrated that she was being denied an answer.

"I don't think you should know." Odd mumbled, trying to think of a reason to explain this.

"Maybe I'll tell the whole school that Odd's a girl, how's that?"

"Is that a threat?" Ulrich asked, he didn't like this girl.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't."

"Listen," Odd said, interrupting the argument, "It's lunchtime, let's go get some lunch and talk about this there."

"Fine," The two said, turning away from each other.

They went to the cafeteria. Odd was worried that lunch was half over, Ulrich was worried that Odd would make friends with Morgan.

Once Odd had gotten her food, she looked around for Morgan, and saw her sitting with the rest of the group. She went over there and Jeremie glared at her.

"What's up, Jeremie?" Odd asked the angry looking genius.

"Oh, nothing," Jeremie said sarcastically. That meant this was going to be really good, or really bad, "Morgan was just telling us about how she figured out your secret."

Odd was speechless, why would he be mad about... Oh, if she figured out that Odd was a girl, who's to say she didn't figure out about Lyoko. Odd was an open book sometimes.

Odd just sat down across from the new girl.

"Why are you so pale?" She asked Odd.

"Nothing." Odd said quickly. A little too quickly.

"You want to answer my question now?"

"Maybe later," Odd said.

Just then, Jeremie's cell phone beeped. He looked at it and gasped. The black haired girl sitting across from him whispered something to him.

"Odd," Jeremie said, "We have an, uh, _issue_." He was trying to be nonchalant, but Odd wasn't catching on.

"What are you talking about?" Odd asked, confused about the sudden change in mood. Then the black haired girl, XANA, pointed to herself.

"Oh," Odd said, finally catching on, "_That_ kind of issue."

"What's going on?" Morgan asked, not understanding the situation at all.

"I'll answer your question later," Odd said, praising God in his mind for the save, "We just kind of have an emergency."

The entire group, except for a very confused Morgan, got up and ran out to the woods.

As they were running, Odd asked what was going on.

"Jeremie," She began, "I thought that with XANA out, there wouldn't be anymore activated towers. What's going on?"

"It is ZETA." XANA said simply. She was still trying to get used to her human body. It was so fragile. Plus, she couldn't run without stopping for breath. A real human body was nothing like one of her spectres.

"ZETA?" Yumi asked, "But I thought it was a part of Lyoko."

"He is, but he is corrupted. He has been for ten years. I was designed to prevent him from getting too powerful. I have failed in that sense."

They arrived at their destination. They climbed down the ladder into the tunnels. XANA had _acquired_ a black skate board the previous day.

They all went to the factory. Now, they had to take turns with the elevator. Four people at a time. Jeremie told everybody except for Lilly and XANA to go down to the scanner room.

"Transfer Aelita, transfer Ulrich, transfer Yumi," Jeremie started the scanning sequence, "Scanner Aelita, scanner Ulrich, scanner Yumi... Virtualization."

Odd and Jason entered scanners.

"Transfer Odd, transfer Jason... Scanner Odd, Scanner Jason... Virtualization."

Odd landed on all fours when she was reconstructed in Lyoko. She looked around. They were in the forest sector. They heard XANA speak instead of Jeremie.

"This seems to be the last place that I have any form of control. William is in a tower somewhere, but I do not know which one. It seems that Omicron is attacking my forces here, though."

Odd just didn't trust her. XANA had messed with their lives for a long time. Why should they trust her?

They saw lasers up ahead. A group of twenty mantises were attacking a group of bloks and krabs. They seemed outnumbered.

"Guys, you need to stop the mantises," Jeremie said, "I'm trying to locate William. Maybe XANA can persuade him to help."

They saw a figure land on his back not too far away.

"No need, Jeremie," Yumi said, "We found him. It looks like _he_ needs _our_ help."

Jason pulled his pistols and charged ahead. He wanted to get out of here before he lost his mind. He had been really on edge lately. Maybe it was because his dad told him to keep their communication a secret. Maybe it was because it was his fault with what happened to Odd. Whatever the reason, he was pissed and wanted to KILL something.

He ran up to the mantises and fired like a maniac. He didn't care if he hit anything, he was just filled with blind fury. Somewhere between the fifth or sixth mantis, his clips were empty. Rolling behind a tree, he reloaded his guns and went to dart out, guns blazing. He was stopped when two arrows shot past his face and hit their marks. The two mantises exploded. The cavalry seemed to arrive as Ulrich sprinted past, both swords drawn. He used one sword to block the mantis's blades and impaled it with the other one. William slashed one across the chest, killing it.

Yumi threw her fans and hit two of them. Only one of them fell, the other one started firing blindly. Jason picked this one off, using the Hunter ability. Eight left. William called a tarantula, then jumped onto it. He rode it into the small crowd of mantises, knocking some over. William jumped off and impaled one of the creature's chests. Ulrich dragged his swords on the ground and sprinted over two fallen mantises. His swords sliced them in two.

Odd shot a few laser arrows at one. Apparently, her last two victims were strokes of luck, as the arrows only seemed to piss the mantis off. It charged after her and the only thought that came into Odd's head was _Run!_ The mantis chased her and shot at her continuously. It eventually fired a charged blast and hit her square in the back. Odd devirtualized instantly.

Yumi went next. She threw her fans at the mantis that Odd had weakened. The monster shot one down and slashed the other in two. It fired furiously at her. Yumi got hit in the legs twice, then once in the chest. That was enough to devirtualize her.

During this, Ulrich had managed to take another mantis down, then noticed that XANA's monsters were just standing there, completely still.

"William!" Ulrich shouted, "Could you tell them to help? We're a little out numbered here!"

William remained silent, except for the occasional grunt when he slashed his enormous sword at a mantis.

"Attack!" The possessed romantic shouted. The krab aimed for the nearest mantis when the nimble creature jumped onto it and stabbed its XANA mark. The bloks went pretty quickly too.

Jason was firing as fast as he could. If it were the real world, his trigger fingers would start getting blisters. He hit one more. It fell and exploded. He was going to aim for another when he got shot in the head.

"OH MY GOD!" Jason shouted as he nearly fell out of the scanner. He had never experienced that before. It didn't hurt, yet he could feel the area where the laser had hit him. Right at the back of the cranium. It ached. He stood up as the "pain" subsided and walked to the elevator.

"Jason?" Jeremie asked over the PA, "You okay?"

The boy shouted in no definite direction, "It shot me in my FREAKIN' HEAD!"

Jeremie tried to think of some thing to say when the elevator doors opened. He turned to Jason and said, "It happens."

In, Lyoko, Aelita was trying to sneak around the battle. There were so many ways to go in the forest sector.

She was running, trying to find a path that would lead to the tower. She had found a definite path when, out of nowhere, a red haze appeared, making her come to a stop.

"Hello, human." It said in a very deep, creepy voice.

"What are you?" Aelita asked, backing up slowly. The haze followed her.

"I am a program," It said simply, "That is all you need to know."

It surrounded her, pulling her away from the tower.

In the lab, XANA noticed that, aside from William, Ulrich was fighting alone. There were more of the creatures coming.

"Send me back." She said. Jeremie just stared at the, well, he really didn't know what XANA was now. She had a living body, and had emotion to an extent. But she thought like a computer, which made this request a little strange.

"I have power in Lyoko," She explained, "Please, send me in."

XANA? Say please? What was going on in this thing's head? Jeremie continued staring.

"You know, I don't think she's much of a danger anymore." Jason pointed out.

"Fine," Jeremie said, "Go in. But if you die in Lyoko, you can't be devirtualized."

The girl's face was just as stoic as ever.

"Thank you." She walked to the elevator, but turned right before she entered it, "Jeremie, I have chosen a human name."

"This isn't the right time, XANA."

"Dee."

"What?"

"That is the name I've chosen, Dee." She attempted a smile. It looked more like she was in pain, but Jeremie got the point.

"We already gave you a name. Dia-" Jeremie paused, he noticed what XANA had just given herself. Her "legal" name was Diana Stones. She was playing the part of Aelita's half-sister. XANA had given herself a nick-name. It was like she was becoming more human.

"That's a good nick-name." He said, actually feeling impressed with the fact that there was an imagination in that head.

XANA, er, Dee, entered the elevator. She entered the scanner room and walked into one of the large tube-like machines.

"Transfer, scanner," Jeremie said, "Virtualization."

Dee hadn't felt this when she was materialized into the real world. It was like being surrounded by a warmth, but then the rush of cold air from below made it go away. The deconstruction was not painful at all, either. She was being put together pixel by pixel, seeing the battle once her eyes were reconstructed. She dropped down, landing on two feet, not even bending her legs to reduce the impact. If anything, she went down slower than she should have. She looked around , she had never seen Lyoko from this point of view. It was just so big.

She examined herself, she was wearing a black trench coat. It seemed a little too big for her. Under it was a tight fitting outfit. She wore boots with spikes on the ankle. Instead of a weapon, she had some sort of small box, but she knew exactly what it did.

Dee pulled up a virtual screen, projected from the box. On it was a number of battle cards. She selected one and pulled it into two, then tapped the screen. Two megatanks appeared.

"Attack the monsters," She ordered, "Protect William."

"That's your weapon?" Lilly asked. Jeremie seemed to be having issues with his headset.

"I have no weapon," Dee/XANA said, "I just summon my monsters."

"Why protect William?" Lilly asked, "Ulrich could use some help." Then she heard a panicked scream from Jeremy.

"AAAAH! Aelita's missing!" The blonde genius screamed.

"Where could she have gone?" Lilly asked.

"I don't know! One second she was there, then she was gone!"

He typed furiously on the computer, trying to locate Aelita. She must have disappeared during the confusion. His screen flickered, then showed a "Ο" symbol.

"That's not ZETA," Lilly said.

"I know," The computer said, "I am Omicron. I believe that this-" A window opened up, showing a very scared Aelita"-Is yours."

"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted into his headset, "Let her go!"

"If you do not follow our orders, she will be eliminated."

"What do you want?" Jeremie asked reluctantly.

"You get rid of all resistance in Lyoko, and we let her free."

"That's all?"

While Jeremie was trying to negotiate with the hostile program, someone else was trying to contact him. Nikolai Resnovik was crammed into the smallest aircraft yet. He was currently in a suborbital with two rooms. **(FYI: A suborbital is a jet that can stay just outside of Earth's atmosphere without leaving full on gravity. God I'm a nerd...**) He was in what Wolfe called the hacker's lounge. Lounge was not even close by a longshot, this room was freaking tiny. But he wasn't concerned about that, right now, he needed to get into the old supercomputer's systems. The firewalls seemed to have changed.

"O **bozhe..."** He said in his native language (Russian), very frustratedly. He tried to hack the computer again, and a red circle popped up with an exclamation point.

"Ya ne paneemau!" He yelled.

"What's wrong Nik?" The Englishman in the cockpit asked.

"These kids, the ones that reactivated the supercomputer, they reset the firewalls."

"Why don't you just call them and ask them to take them down?"

"Bozhe moi," He said frustratingly, then he shouted at Wolfe, "What the HELL do you think I'm trying to do!"

"Relax, Nik, relax. Why do you need to get on that old thing anyway?

"They let XANA out! I thought I told you!"

"You told me they turned him into a human."

"They did, but remember why XANA was updated?"

"To make the world government collapse?"

"Why are you always so stupid?"

"What? That's what Professor Hopper, I mean Schaeffer, wanted, wasn't it?"

"The virus was updated to act as a permanent moderator. If one of the AIs got too powerful, he would attack it."

"Oh... " Wolfe said, "So that means that without XANA, one of the AIs is taking over?"

"Three, actually."

"Which ones?"

"ZETA, KAPPA, and OMICRON."

"Oooh, ZETA?" Wolfe said in a sarcastically scared voice, "What do you intend to do?"

"First, I need to get a connection."

"Well, that might be a problem..." Wolfe said, looking over the plane's gauges, "We need fuel."

"We've only been up here for an hour!" Nikolai shouted, "I thought I told you to fill the plane!"

"I was going to, but then I noticed how fuel was so expensive... And how the Agency doesn't give us much of an allowance."

"You really _are_ an idiot!" Nikolai yelled.

"Just, keep trying to get a connection," Wolfe said, "If we need to, we can glide down." He looked at the gauges again, looked back at his friend, and smiled, "How high do you think we are?"

The Russo-American just stared at the young pilot. He only muttered one thing, "Kristos..." (**For any needed info, "Kristos" is "Christ"; "Bozhe Moi" is "Oh my god"; "Ya ne paneemau" is "I don't understand"; and "O bozhe" is "Oh god." I'm just trying to seem authentic, sorry for the Russian**)

"Okay OMICRON," Jeremie said, "I'll pull XANA and Ulrich out, you just let Aelita go."

The computer was silent for a minute, "Agreed."

Jeremie regained control of the computer, he devirtualized Ulrich and XANA. Odd ran up, "Jeremie, what the hell?"

"I have to do this Odd, they're threatening to kill Aelita if I don't."

Then, a phone call came on, Jeremie noticed that there was no name or number, it didn't even say PRIVATE. Jason saw it, he recognized it as the agency, and he was confused.

"Hello?" Jeremie asked, confused.

"Hello, Mr. Belpois," Said a disguised voice. It sounded like that guy from the Saw movies. Odd would have laughed if its next words were 'Would you like to play a game?'

Sadly, those were not the next words to be spoken.

"I have been watching you," The voice said, "And, all pleasantries aside, you are a bitch to get in touch with."

Jeremie heard a distorted voice in the background, "Shock, 10 minutes till I cut the computer. Fuel doesn't grow on trees you know."

"Please excuse my idiot friend's rude interruption," The voice said, Jeremie looked at Odd for a second. The voice continued, "Down to business. I am an Observer, I keep an eye on all possible branches to Lyoko. You seem to need help."

"What makes you think that?" Odd asked sarcastically. Meanwhile, Ulrich and Dee entered the Lab. Ulrich looked angry.

"I was going to destroy the last mantis when you devirtualized me!" Ulrich said angrily.

Jeremie just looked at him then looked back at the screen. He noticed that Aelita had reappeared on it, here life points intact.

"I don't have much time," The voice said, "I will send a program into Lyoko to aid you. His name is TAU, or Tactical Attack Unit. He is materializing now."

Jeremie heard a faint, warped sound of keys tapping. He saw a new avatar appear on the screen.

"TAU is spawning..." The voice trailed off, "Now."

"Thanks?" Jeremie was still a little confused as to who this person was.

"I'll be in touch in twenty two hours. That is, if Beast fills the jet tonight!" There seemed to be an argument going on, with the disguising program running, it sounded like a scene from a horror movie. Then the line went dead.

In Lyoko, Aelita was still recovering from the mini hostage situation. She saw someone being virtualized. In the distance, William was on his last legs. He called a manta so he could flee, but it was shot down. There was just one more mantis, but it was like trying to hit a bird with a boulder. His sword was hefty, and the monster was built for speed.

The avatar dropped to the ground in front of Aelita. He landed like a gargoyle (Hands on his knees, with his knees bent). The person had dark hair, but it didn't seem to have a definite color. He had a very light tan on his skin. His outfit was a dark blue uniform with a strange symbol on the shoulder. He had some kind of rifle on his back, it looked high-tech but it still retained its basic form.

"Jeremie?" Aelita asked to the sky, "Who is this?"

"It's a program that someone just uploaded to the supercomputer." Jeremie said.

"Does he have a name?"

"I am the Tactical Attack Unit," The avatar said calmly, "But you may call me TAU."

Aelita was, well, surprised at the program's voice. She thought it would be deeper. He sounded younger than her. TAU drew his rifle and walked to the edge of the ground, aiming for the last mantis.

"Super Sight," He whispered. His eyes seemed to glow.

He fired, the gun fired in a bright flash, zooming through the virtual trees, hitting the mantis on ZETA's mark. Aelita saw as the distant monster fell and exploded. William turned to see the attacker. He glared at Aelita, considering attacking. If he moved now, he could catch her off guard and capture her. But the scyphozoa hadn't been seen in a while, which was strange. Not only that, but the new monsters had been attacking him. Him! XANA's right hand man!

Then, he felt something. It was like a headache, but like a pressure was being released. He collapsed, then got back up. He looked around, feeling his mind clear.

"Where am I?" He asked to no one in particular. He turned around to see Aelita and someone else running to the activated tower. Then, everything returned to him. XANA, the factory, Lyoko. How long had he been controlled? He ran in the tower's direction.

Jeremie just stared at William's marker. It changed from hostile to friendly, then started moving towards Aelita, who was in the tower. Odd laughed out loud, "Those guys sounded really unprofessional! Did you hear the guy in the background? He sounds like a total idiot!"

The girl continued laughing for a good while, Ulrich was thinking on how the background reminded him of Odd. Jeremie heard Aelita.

"Jeremie!" She said from the tower, "The code isn't working!"

XANA/Dee walked up to the screen and looked at the background.

"Try Epsilon." The girl said.

A few seconds passed.

"That doesn't work either."

Jason gave the next suggestion, "Try Lyoko backwards. Some programs are really stupid."

A few more seconds passed.

"That works!" Aelita said, very surprised in the simplicity of the problem.

The tower deactivated and Aelita was devirtualized. After talking with William, Jeremie was convinced that it was safe to devirtualize him. He was tempted to deactivate William's clone, when the tower deactivated itself.

"That shouldn't happen." Jeremie said. He pulled up the data on the clone. There was none. This could be really bad.

"Guys, it's saying that William's clone never even existed."

"That can't be right," Aelita said.

"KAPPA could have done this," Dee said, "He controls most of the data in Lyoko."

"Why hasn't ZETA done anything?" Jeremie asked.

"He controls the primary systems. Knowing how he works though, he might absorb the other two, giving himself maximum control of the system."

"So what does this mean for William's clone?" Yumi asked, feeling sorry for the stupid program.

"He's probably disappeared by now..." Jeremy said. They all had a moment of silence for the obnoxious creature. Even Lilly and Jason, who never met him, were silent. Jason wasn't silent for the clone, though. He thought he knew who that was who had called. But why would they help?

Nikolai was sitting in the motel room. Most covert organizations put their agents in grand five-star hotels, but the Agency had put him in a run down motel outside Berlin. At least the airstrip was close by.

The phone rang, he answered.

"Hello?"

"It's Wolfe."

"Let me guess, we don't have the money for fuel?"

"Oh, I filled the jet."

"Then why are you calling?"

"We can't pay the rent for the hangar."

"Then we call for more money."

"The Operator is going to kill us." Wolfe said in a song like manner.

"It's just for rent."

"You call," Wolfe said seriously, "I don't want to go another month without a paycheck."

Nikolai hung up. He looked at his laptop to monitor the program's status. TAU seemed to be doing fine. He pulled up a live feed from a satellite. It showed Paris. He zoomed in on the Kadic District. Then on the academy. He zoomed in one more time to a part of the dormitory building. He could see the back of a computer monitor. He looked at the clock, it was midnight in Paris. Calling his boss would have to wait.

Nikolai activated his voice disguise program, and dialed his son's phone.

Odd was laying on her bed. God it was a late night. She heard a knock on her window. It was Morgan.

"How did you do that?" Odd asked as she stood back up from crawling in through the window. She had climbed up from her room's window. She had been put into an unoccupied room, so there was no suspicion or nosy roommate.

"I took a class in my old school," She said smiling deviously, "It's pretty useful when you're into urban exploration."

"Oh," Odd said, great, no more time to think of a lie, "I guess that you want an answer now..."

"Ah, keep it," Morgan said, "I don't really care anymore."

"So, why'd you come down here?" Odd asked.

"I was getting lonely," Morgan replied, "Who knew that having no roommate would be so quiet?"

"So, wait," Odd said, holding her hands up, "You threaten me for an answer, and now you want to hang out?"

"Yeah."

The first thought in Odd's mind was, _What the f*** is up with this girl?_ Odd thought that he understood the female mind, but this girl was going against that idea. Was she just playing with him/her? Was this just a test?

Ulrich walked in to grab a towel, he had been in the shower. He was just wearing boxers. Because of this, he flipped out when he saw Morgan, whom he really did not like.

"Gah! What the hell!" He shouted, but not too loud so not to wake up anybody in the building.

"Hey Ulrich," Morgan said, a little too coolly for the current situation, "I was just coming to see if you guys wanted to hang out?"

"It's midnight!" The German boy yelled, once again, just loud enough to not wake up every body, "And I thought you hated us."

"I don't hate you guys," Morgan protested, "I was just trying to figure out a single question." She then switched subjects out of nowhere, "But about the time, I'm kind of a night owl."

"So," Ulrich started, "Why do you want to hang out?"

"I'm lonely! I don't have a roommate and you're the only people I've gotten to know!"

"Okay, okay," Ulrich said, "Calm down, I guess that you can hang out here for a little while."

He walked back out of the room with the towel.

Morgan turned to Odd, "Do you have an MP3 player?"


	6. Insomnia

Ulrich had never been so tired. Morgan had stayed until three in the morning, listening to music with Odd. The volume was so high, he knew that they listened to Slipknot, Korn, Linkin Park, and he thought he even heard some AC/DC in there. Now, he was lying in bed, with no sense of time, unable to fall asleep. He looked at Odd.

Odd felt like he was being watched, but that seemed to be common now. He didn't know why, but he had started feeling a little paranoid. Not enough to make her have a nervous breakdown, but just enough to feel like she was always being watched. She noticed that someone _was_ watching her, she turned around to see Ulrich, staring at her from his bed. He had his everyday straight face.

"Ulrich...?"

"Oh, you're awake."

He turned back to the wall.

"What were you looking at?" Odd asked.

"Nothing, go to sleep."

Odd looked at the clock, it was 6am. She wasn't tired at all. In fact, she couldn't stop thinking about Morgan. She picked up her phone and called her. But it went directly to voice mail. That was weird.

Jeremie was sitting at his computer, he couldn't sleep. Jason was out like a light, he had had a thirty minute phone call around midnight. Afterwords, he just fell asleep. Jeremie was working on Aelita's antivirus, XANA may have not been a threat anymore, but Aelita was still connected to the supercomputer.

Jeremie thought that he had it, when his computer shut off, no, the power went out. Jeremie was already so stressed that he just laughed at this.

Jason was awoken by the sound of laughing. It was Jeremie, he laughing like a crazy person. Kind of like The Joker.

"Jeremie?"

"I give up," Jeremie said with an insane smile on his face, "I f*****g give up!" He slammed his hand on the desk.

Dee was sitting up in her bed. What had just happened? She was having what she believed was a nightmare, then she woke up and an electrical outlet had sparked. Her roommate, Sissi, was sleeping, completely out of it. Dee didn't know what had happened, but the strange electrical outage would cause a lot of students to be late for school.

Odd and Ulrich were woken up by Jim. He was running through the halls to get people up. Apparently, there had been a black out early in the morning. Odd was running out the door right when Ulrich grabbed shoulder. She looked back at him, and he held up the strip of cloth. Odd blushed, she almost ran out without a disguise. She ran back into the room and asked Ulrich to shut the door.

Dee was walking down the hall, she looked like a zombie with her blank stare. She walked right past Ulrich, not even acknowledging his presence. Jason ran up to Ulrich.

"Ulrich!" He shouted, he sounded scared.

"What is it, Jason?"

"It's Jeremie," The boy looked very shaken, "I think he just had a nervous breakdown."

"Odd!" Ulrich shouted through the door, "Meet me at Jeremie's room!"

"Will do Ulrich!" Odd shouted through the door as she was trying to tie the strip on her back.

Ulrich and Jason got to Jeremie's room. Jason opened the door slowly. Ulrich saw the genius sitting there, his computer behind him, the wood on his desk was split. Jeremie was holding his left hand. The pinky looked out of place.

"What happened?" Ulrich asked Jason.

"He was working on something on the computer, then there was a power outage, the computer died, and he went crazy."

"What happened to his hand?"

"He slammed it down on the desk. I think it's broken."

Odd ran up to the room and saw Jeremie.

"What's up Einstein?"

Ulrich smacked his forehead with his hand, the worst thing to do with an unstable person is to call them names.

"Nothing Odd..." Jeremie mumbled.

"It doesn't look like nothing," Ulrich said, "The desk is split and your hand is broken, what the heck happened?"

Then the three, erm, _two_ boys and _one_ girl heard a sick sound. Jeremie popped his pinky back into place.

"It's not broken..." He mumbled. Jeremie continued this popping until he could move his hand again, "It was just dislocated..."

The first idea that Ulrich had was that XANA had possessed him, but he had seen her walk by this morning. This was creepy, Jeremie looked insane, his hair was all messed up, his glasses were thrown on the floor, he was popping dislocated joints into place without even showing signs of pain. It didn't seem natural.

Odd stepped into the hallway and called Aelita.

"Yeah Odd?" She said answering her phone.

"Jeremie's having a, uh, freaky moment."

"A what?" The pink haired girl asked, confused.

"Can you just come down here? He's really freaking us out."

"Okay Odd, I'll be down there soon." She hung up.

Aelita ran to the dorm room. She was very worried about Jeremie, he had been overworking himself again. If something happened, he could possibly lose it. She got to the room, and saw the boy.

He was sitting in his normal seat, like he had just turned around, but the look on his face was not normal. It shouldn't be a look anyone gives. He was smiling, but his eyes were wide open.

"Jeremie," Aelita whispered, feeling terrible about his current condition, "What happened?"

"Aelita," He said, still smiling, but he had a sad tone to his voice, "I'm sorry, but I can't cure you... The power went out, and the 500 lines of code I wrote last night can never be recovered."

"Jeremie, you can do this, I know you can, you just need to take a break."

"That's what I'm doing, Aelita, I'm just taking a break," He sounded a little angry, "And when I'm done with this break, I'll work until it kills me."

He turned around, turned on his computer, and noticed a prompt to restore the previous session. Jeremie just stared dumbfounded at the screen for a minute, then clicked yes, picked up his usual bag of candy, and started working as if nothing happened.

"This was a waste of time," Jason said, sighing, "He nearly loses his mind, just to find out that he could have recovered the data anyway. Lilly used to be the same way, but that was with hacking."

Aelita glared at Jason, who was not even phased by the ironic turn of events.

"So," Odd trailed off, "What did we just miss breakfast for?"

"Well," Ulrich said, "I guess that Jeremie's a little unstable. I had kind of guessed it already, but to see him like that... Let's just go to class."

They were walking away right when they heard a thud. They turned around to see Aelita staring down at Jeremie. He had fallen out of his chair and was laying on the floor.

"What happened now?" Odd asked, about to freak out.

Aelita just laughed, "He just fell asleep."

They heard a light snore coming from the boy on the floor.

After Ulrich and Jason had picked Jeremie up and put him on his bed, everyone except for Jeremie went to their classes.

Through out the day, Ulrich felt uncomfortable. Odd had been looking at him very strangely. At lunch, he walked up to her and Morgan.

"Hey Ulrich," Morgan said, "What's up?"

"Why's Odd been staring at me all day?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't know," Odd said, "I've been staring at a lot of things today."

Ulrich found that he wouldn't get anything out of her, so walked away. He approached Aelita.

"Any word about Jeremie?" He asked.

"He's awake," Aelita said, "Just really tired. I think the exhaustion got to him."

"That's good," Ulrich paused, Aelita's cell phone was ringing.

"Hey Jeremie." She said.

"There's another... (Yawn) activated tower," The half conscious programmer said, "In the mountain... (Yawn) sector."

"Okay Jeremie, you stay there, we'll go to the factory and deactivate it."

Aelita called Yumi. But she had a test to makeup. Not one that would be smart to miss either.

That left Odd, Lilly, Jason, her and Ulrich. William was in Yumi's class too. He was astonished at how fast the clone had dropped his grade, it didn't even show up half of the days it should of, but he wasn't high on the list to call for help anyway. Dee seemed to have been missing since the morning. Aelita hadn't seen her at all.

They decided it would be fine for the four of them to go. Odd had said that she wanted to stay with Morgan.

They took the normal route, Lilly and Jason had brought their skateboards this time, which were, of course, identical. They got to the elevator, punched in the code, and went down to the lab.

"I think I can use the system," Lilly said, "I'm just better at hacking, though."

They nodded and the remaining three went down to the scanner room. They entered the scanners.

"Okay, I'm scanning now," She said simply, "Virtualization."

The three landed and did a quick inspection to see that they were virtualized correctly.

"I'm picking up TAU's signature," Lilly said, "He's 30 clicks to the north of your position. No, wait, he's engaging you Jason."

"What-" Was all that Jason could get out before a blast hit him in the back, throwing him forward and devirtualizing.

He stepped out of the scanner.

"What happened?"

"You go shot in the back."

"No dip, Sherlock! By Who?"

"TAU."

"He's supposed to be friendly!"

Nikolai was stationed on the ground this time, he had requested it actually. He was trying to find out why the TAU had gone rouge.

"Otchegaw, TAU?" (Why, TAU?) He silently asked the computer. He noticed that Jason had been devirtualized, and that Ulrich Stern was being targeted. He knew the ultimate target was Aelita, he had to move fast. He grabbed his cellphone and called the Operator.

"Zdraast vooee che, Nikolai," (**Greetings Nikolai**) The Operator said, his voice disguised, "Shtaw vee kha tee tye?" (**what do you want?**)

"I want to be reactivated." Nikolai said.

"You do know that the Creed has not been disabled yet."

"I don't care, it punished me before and I guess I haven't learned my lesson."

"Pe chey moo?" (**Why?**)

"Pe _ta_ moo, I am going in there, no matter what you say. I just wanted to see what your thoughts were on the issue."

"I am fine with it, but yours and Gregory's handler may have something to say about it."

"Greg has nothing to do with this, I merely wish to be reactivated as a Moderator. An official one."

"I will decide what to do with your partner. He may be forced to join you."

"Spaasee ba, Operator Smith." (**thank you**)

The other end was silent for what seemed to be a long time, then, without a disguise, "Have fun, Nik." The line went dead.

Nikolai got out of the van he was in and ran to the abandoned factory across the street. He found the ropes that the others were using, but he was too big for it. He jumped from the ledge, fell ten feet, and landed on his feet. Those mutations he got from the prototype scanners were starting to prove useful. He ran to the elevator, punched in the code that had been so familiar to him, and went down directly to the scanner room. He squoze into a scanner, god he was getting big.

"Activate," He said. He was thinking about Smith's voice, it was so familiar. The scanner started up, filling with warmth. Then it spoke in a robotic voice, "Please state command prompt."

"Initiate command prompt: reactivation of moderator RSN."

"Please state pass key."

"148919."

"Warning: you are going against the Creed of this computer. This may lead to permanent affirmative actions by this computer."

"Pra klee naats Creed!" (**Damn the Creed**) By now, Lilly would have noticed that the cameras in the scanner room were on a loop. He had to speed this up.

"Access granted."

He felt the scanner take him apart molecule by molecule. He noticed that he saw the world appear before him, and Ulrich get shot in the leg, he was almost out of life points. He saw the tiny figure in the distance shift. Nikolai dropped to the ground and activated his shield.

Aelita had only a few seconds to respond, she could hide behind a rock, but the weapon could destroy those, she heard the shot, but suddenly a shield surrounded her. She turned to see her savior, but didn't recognize him. He looked around Yumi's age, had brown hair. He was wearing a blue tunic with black pants, and had the smallest weapon she had ever seen, a tiny knife. But the shield stopped the round in it's tracks.

In the distance, TAU was wondering what had happened. He had fired, but the girl did not devirtualize. There was what appeared to be an orb of electrical energy surrounding her.

"Laad na, TAU," (**Okay, TAU**) Nikoali said, "You turn on me, and I do the same for you." He concentrated on TAU, grabbed his knife and stabbed his hand, taking two life points, and said, "Plasma Stike." A huge bolt of electricity came down and hit the program. He lost 75 life points, and leaving him completely immobilized.

"I'll be right back, kiddo." Nikolai told Aelita. He concentrated at the area he wanted to go, then muttered said "Super Sonic" and disappeared. Aelita had the strangest feeling that she knew him from somewhere, and the way he had just talked to her, it was like he knew her well.

Nik appeared right behind the rouge program. He turned it around to see the strangest sight of all, TAU had ZETA's mark inside OMICRON's mark. That meant that ZETA must have absorbed OMICRON. He decided to end this program, so he grabbed his knife and stabbed the avatar on the new mark, relieving it of its last 25 life points. TAU turned into a wireframe, then disappeared forever.

Lilly just stared at the screen, Jason was leaning in a corner. He knew who it was, Lilly just caught the last of the manual override in the scanner. It had all happened so fast too. The second the man was in Lyoko, Lilly freaked out. She talked to the mysterious stranger.

"Who are you? How did you get onto Lyoko?"

Nikolai thought he should try to keep himself secret as long as possible, which wouldn't be too long because Jason undoubtedly knew who he was.

"Did you hear me?" Lilly asked.

"Ya ne gavareeu na angliskom," He said smiling up at the sky.

"What?"

Jason walked up to the computer and said into the mike, "Dad, I know that's you. Stop speaking Russian."

"Da, it's me."

To say that Lilly was shocked would be an understatement. The man who she thought was dead, was talking to her from Lyoko. He was perfectly fine too, it made no sense, the man had been missing for five years. No, _hiding_ for five years.

"Daddy?" She asked, trying not to stutter., "Is that you?"

"Hey Lilly, I'm sorry that I've been gone for a while, but I'm back."

Lilly nearly passed out. This could not be happening. She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the two enemies heading towards Ulrich.

Ulrich was laying on the ground when Aelita helped him up. He saw the mantises, but they weren't mantises. They were much heavier built, had small heads, and looked very powerful.

Ulrich was standing to fight them, when his head seemed to explode in pain. He fell over, clutching his head. He felt like he could die, it was pain that most people should never experience. Then, just as fast as it had started, it stopped. He shrugged it off and picked up his swords.

Nikolai used his Super Sonic ability to get over to Ulrich. He made a shield around himself.

"Who are you?" Ulrich asked.

"This is the worst time for questions!" Nikolai shouted, "But my name is Nikolai."

He threw a lightning ball at one of the creatures. It froze for a second, then kept moving.

"Forget this." Nik said. He ran up to one of the creatures, put his hands on it, and shouted, "Conduction!"

After the thing The monster fell back and exploded.

"Wo-" Was all Ulrich said when the first shot was fired by the other creature. He devirtualized...

The best way to describe it was that Ulrich felt like crap. The second he left the scanner, he knew he had a fever. He stumbled over to the elevator.

"Ka ra shaw, that sucks," (**Ka ra shaw=well**) Nik said when Ulrich devirtualized. He ran up to the other monster and used the conduction technique again. It fell over and exploded. He then grabbed Aelita, used Super Sonic, and had her by the tower before she even noticed he had grabbed her.

"How...?" She said, staring wide-eyed at him.

"Just deactivate the tower."

She entered the tower, and deactivated it, normally this time.

When Lilly figured out how to devirtualize them, Aelita came up to the Lab. The elevator went down again, but passed the Lab coming back up. Nik stepped out of the elevator into the abandoned factory. He climbed out, and ran over to the van. When he got in there, Wolfe freaked out.

"What the HELL! The Operator called me and said that you were reactivated! I guess that you see what it did to you?"

"Da, but it's not all that bad."

"God, how are we going to explain this to Smith?"

Wolfe's phone rang. He answered.

"Hello?"

"You know I can reactivate you, right? Don't say my NAME!" The line went dead.

"I told you he wouldn't be happy."

Meanwhile, the four Lyoko warriors left to go back to Kadic. It was around dinner time, so Aelita guessed where they could find Odd. Ulrich seemed to have developed a fever in Lyoko. He could barely walk, so Jason supported him the way back to his room. Ironically, Odd was not at dinner, and Ulrich's room appeared empty.

Jason and Ulrich entered the dorm room. Ulrich sat on Odd's bed without even looking.

"Hey! Watch where you're going Kiwi!" Odd said from under the covers.

Jason lifted the sheets up to find Odd curled up.

"What are you doing?" Jason asked.

"Sleeping."

"Why?"

"Well," Odd said, "I'm tired. What's wrong with Ulrich?"

"He got sick on Lyoko."

"Oh, that sucks."

Jason helped Ulrich into bed.

"I should probably go," The American boy said, "Hope ya feel better tomorrow, Ulrich."

He left the room. Odd pulled her sheets back up and fell asleep.

Ulrich was sleeping on and off all night. When he was asleep, he was having nightmares of falling into the digital sea, when he was awake, he was in so much pain that he wanted to scream. It was as if his body was boiling down to the innards of his cells. Around 2am, he felt a little better, so he got up, and walked to the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror for god knows how long. He didn't look into it at all, too many bad dreams.

Ulrich walked back to the room. He laid on his bed, over the sheets. He noticed how Odd's snoring wasn't as bad as before her transformation. It was easier to sleep now.

He fell asleep...

* * *

XANA was walking back to her room. She had found out the truth. Her powers were returning. It appeared that it was her return to Lyoko that had sparked their return.

Currently, she could only control small electronics, but it was a start. She may be able to make a plan after all.

* * *

"Ulrich?" He heard Odd ask. It was Sunday, why was Odd trying to wake him up?

"... What is it Odd..." He asked in a groggy voice. It sounded kind of different, though.

"I just wanted to welcome you to the club." What? What was that supposed to mea-

Ulrich opened his eyes, that action hurt. Then he tried to move his arm to sit up. His whole body was-

"Stiff?" Odd asked, pointing to Ulrich's arm, "That's how I was right after I changed."

"... Oh god... Don't tell me I'm a-"

"Hey!" Odd said smiling, "You guessed it!"

Ulrich didn't really know how to react. At any rate, he was taking it better than Odd. He finally sat up, finding the truth as the new weight on his chest shifted. He _really_ ached.

"Maybe we should call Jeremie." Odd suggested.


	7. Reactivation

"You've got to kidding me!" Wolfe exclaimed as he hung up the phone. He turned to Nikolai, "Thanks to you, I've been reactivated."

"Really?" Nik said, "I guess our handler is gonna handle everything now, huh?"

"I don't want to end up like _you_!" Wolfe said, frustratingly. Nikolai had broken a rule on Lyoko. It was called the Creed program. It was created for an order of succession, and stated that you start as an Initiate, then become a Moderator, then you become an Observer, and the final rank is Operator. If anyone tries to return to the Moderator rank, the Creed program executes a form of punishment known as permanent reversion. Physically, Nikolai was 14, mentally, he was 32.

"Why? It's like a fountain of youth, with a little mutation here and there."

"I was twelve the last time I used the scanner!"

"So what?"

"I don't want to have to wait another nine years to drink again!"

"Would you stop shouting?"

"No, you don't need me in Lyoko!"

"The Operator reactivated you, you must oblige."

"Alright... But I don't like this."

They walked over to the factory. Nikolai could see the figure standing in the distance. He knew it was their handler.

They went into the factory.

"Oh, look," Gregory Wolfe said, "A ten foot drop. I'm out of here."

"Come on."

Nik jumped down, and Greg was left to climb down. They went over to the elevator, rode down to the scanner room, and Wolfe refused to leave the elevator.

"Come on, Wolfe," Nik said, pulling the 29 year old out of the elevator, "Eesos, get over there!" He pushed Wolfe over to an open scanner.

"Nik, I can flee the agency, please don't make me do this!"

"Stop begging and get in there!"

"No! I- I'm claustrophobic!"

"In the jet maybe, now get in there!" He pushed him into a scanner and the door shut. Then Wolfe decided to start banging on the door.

"You're only hurting yourself, Wolfe!" Nikolai said as he walked over to the elevator. He went up to the lab and turned on the screens. It was like he went back in time. He could remember sitting here, professor Hopper coming in and out. Even a young Aelita running around the Lab.

He activated the scanner, entered Greg's pass codes, and activated it. It was like a fight for survival for Greg, he was banging on the door when the scanner turned on. He decided it was safest to stay still. At this point, it would be dangerous to keep attempting to damage the scanner. The tiny space filled with warmth, then was blasted with cold air.

Greg looked around once he could. He was in the ice sector. He hated it here. He examined himself, he was wearing a red shirt, red pants, a long sleeve orange shirt under the red one, no shoes, and no weapon. He immediately recognized that he had a tail. He felt his ears, noticing that they were pointed. Yep, he was himself.

"Alright, I'm in, " He said, hearing his much younger voice, "Now take me out."

"I'm picking up a hostile signature coming your way, try getting devirtualized."

Wolfe looked at the thing, he had never seen it before. It was large, round, had four small legs under it (like a midget krab), but it also appeared to have two legs on it's back. The legs came up as it entered range. It stood up, folding its front legs into its chest, now standing on its two sets of hind legs. It had two blasters on its chest, and the only mark on it was the "ζ" in the "O."

"What in the hell is it?"

"What ever it is, it has 200 life points, aim for it's symbol."

Greg lifted his arm and fired a laser arrow. **(AN: ****I'm sorry, I'm trying to make Greg into the Odd that came before Odd**). Unlike the Odd we know, he actually came close to hitting his target.

"195 life points left. Maybe just keep firing at it."

Greg fired again, hitting the edge of the symbol this time. He was getting rusty. Nonetheless, the monster fell over and exploded.

"Now can I go?" Greg asked.

"Yeah,let me devirtualize you."

He stepped out of the scanner, noticing what happened to him, he was several inches shorter, no about a foot shorter than he was before he got into the scanner.

"Oh this is great..." He was wearing what he had worn when he had just gotten into the scanner. The clothes were hanging off of him. God, this sucks. He had gained quite a bit of weight since he had left the Lyoko Project,so when he got back up to the Lab, he was holding his pants up.

"Let's just go meet the handler." Greg said.

Ulrich was sitting on the bed in Jeremie's room. He still didn't feel good, but that may have been because he found out what had happened to him.

"How could this have happened?" He was trying to get used to hearing the voice. His voice, it didn't sound anything like his voice. He was also a lot shorter, it was weird on how he looked almost nothing like he did the night before. If they could disguise him like they did Odd, he wouldn't know how to repay them.

"Well," Jeremie said, staring at the computer screen, "According to the data, Jason's DNA seems to have put a virus into the scanners."

"It's just a computer virus?" Ulrich said, the voice cracking a little.

"No, it's an actual virus." Jeremie said.

"What does that mean for me?"

Jeremie went wide eyed, "You might be contagious."

"You don't feel sick do you?" Ulrich asked, feeling a little more scared than before.

"No, it might pass between touch, but definitely not air. If it did, the whole floor would be infected by now."

The girl sitting on the bed relaxed a little. At least she wasn't infecting everyone else. Odd poked her head in.

"How ya doing Ulrich?"

"I'm contagious Odd." Ulrich said.

"We're not sure of that yet," Jeremie said, "I need to run some tests at the factory. Odd, since you've already been infected, you go with Ulrich."

"Infected?" Odd asked, "What do you mean?"

"It was a virus that turned you into a girl, Odd." The genius said.

"So, it's curable?" Odd asked with a hopeful voice.

"Not for you, I'm afraid." Said Jason. He had been leaning in the darker corner of the room. Why was he always in a dark corner? Odd was freaked out by this.

"Why do you always do that?" She asked.

"I don't like light," He replied, "But as for your question, you've been a girl for about five days now. Your body has adjusted to the hormones and organ arrangement. You are not curable without putting yourself at risk."

"What about me?" Ulrich asked.

Jason walked up to the girl, and placed a hand on her forehead. Jeremie gasped, he was risking infection.

"You have a fever, so your body is still unstable. If we wait too long, though, then you'll be stuck."

"Did you not just hear us talking about Ulrich being possibly contagious?" Jeremie asked.

"It's a virus based off of my DNA," Jason said bitterly, "I should be safe."

"And if you're not?"

"Then I'll look just like my sister." The pale teen said.

"Alright," Jeremie said, "Odd, Ulrich, you go to the factory."

"What about you?" Odd asked.

"I need to get Aelita first."

"Alright, come on Ulrich," Odd said grabbing Ulrich's arm, "Ew, you're slimy."

"That's not a good thing," Jason said, "Like with Odd, there are lots of ways for the hormones to exit the body. Ulrich's sweating them out."

As Odd and Ulrich were running to the factory, there was a man in Washington DC, standing at a funeral procession. **(AN: I must add a REAL ****AMERICAN**** BADASS to this story.**)

The American President had died of malaria a few days prior. At the funeral procession, the Vice President was to take the ceremonial Oath of Office, even though he was already president. In truth, the President had been poisoned with a chemical that would give similar symptoms to malaria. He had just returned from Central Africa not too long ago, so the symptoms would not make doctors suspect poison. The Vice President stepped forward to give a eulogy. The Agency, however had other plans.

Timothy Carthun, currently under the alias of Timothy Farmer, was standing in the ceremonial firing squad. Unlike the other nineteen men in the squad, his musket was loaded. In his mind, he was going over the specifics of the situation. The Vice President was at an elevated position, so he would have no trouble concealing his presence in the crowd. There were two armed guards at the target's sides, but he knew that his support would take care of them. The signal came to raise their arms, he rose his a few degrees to the right, calculating the curve of the ball.

They heard the word to fire. He squeezed the trigger, firing the ball. In his mind, he saw the ball's path. He cursed in his head when the ball missed the heart and hit the Vice President's left lung. The politician fell and his guards drew their weapons, aiming all around, trying to find the assassin. They were about to aim for Tim, when three sniper shots screamed through the city. The Vice President, who was gasping for air, fell over when his chest burst open. His two bodyguards fell over, their suits turning red.

It all turned to hell there, when the President's successor was shot. People started to run and scream. Tim ran with them and jumped behind some bushes. He heard a voice in his earpiece.

"The assassin has been assassinated."

Lance, Tim's partner and younger brother was currently crouched at a window on the top of the Washington Monument. The Monument had been closed for the procession, so he just had to get the keys and go up there with a sniper rifle. He had noticed that his brother's position was compromised, so he took the situation into his own hands.

Tim had run and jumped behind some bushes. He had shed the uniform he had worn and was now in a black jumpsuit. He had two Uzis drawn and was ready pull out. He heard the helicopter come down, but not all the way. He was running out to it, firing at the secret service agents who were shooting at him. He jumped onto the helicopter and closed the doors. There were just two other people in there with him. Lance and the pilot.

Lance opened his mouth to congratulate his brother when the television in the back turned on. The sign that appeared was that of their Operator. It was three eyes of XANA with tops touching in a triangle.

"That was the worst execution of a mission I have ever seen," The Operator said through a disguised voice, "I can say that I'm happy to tell you that you two are being transferred."

"Transferred?" Lance asked, "But we're your top killers."

"That is irrelevant. Tim, you're gong to Site Zero as an Observer."

"Paris, huh? That would be really nice if I wasn't going to spend hours upon hours at a computer."

"What about me sir?" Lance asked.

"You're going to Site Seven. I believe that this will be your first time as a Moderator."

"I'm going to L-2?"

"Yes. Egypt branch."

"Thank you sir." The two brothers said.

"Oh, and Tim, you will go under your original name. I will give you your first mission when you get to the airport."

"Thank you sir." Tim said.

Lilly was laying in her bed. She had hoped that she could sleep in today, but Aelita's night terrors got in the way of that plan.

Aelita had already left the room. Where she went, who knows. Lilly was just frustrated that she had forgotten her cell phone, which had rang about five times by now. Lilly just put the covers over her head. Why couldn't she be lazy for one day?

Aelita walked in and picked up her phone.

"Good morning Jeremie."

_Oh god_, Lilly thought, _It's Jeremie. Why can't they just go out already?_

"What happened to Ulrich? Okay I'll meet you at the factory."

She hung up. Lilly sat up and looked at the pink-haired girl.

"What happened to Ulrich?"

"You'll see," Aelita said, in a playful tone.

Lilly thought it best to get out of bed and go to the factory. They walked to the entrance in the woods. When they got to the factory floor, they saw Jeremie banging on the control pad for the elevator.

"What's wrong Jeremie?" Aelita asked as she approached him.

"Someone's locked the elevator!"

"Where are Odd and Ulrich?"

"They went down before I got here."

"So why not call Odd and ask her to open the elevator?"

Jeremie sighed and pulled out his phone. Why had he been so much on edge lately.

"Odd?" Jeremie said, "Could you unlock the elevator?"

"No," Odd said, she sounded stressed, "We're stuck in here. The elevator went down to the Lab, but it never opened. I'm putting in the code, but it just won't open."

"How's Ulrich?"

"She's banging on the door. But she isn't as strong as she was."

"I'll try to figure this out," Jeremie said, "Just stay put for the meantime."

"Where would we go?"

"Bye Odd."

He hung up, just as Odd started to complain about claustrophobia, and told Aelita and Lilly about the situation. Lilly called Jason, who was trying to hook up a TV in his room. Jason then called their father.

He had guessed the number, since the one on his phone was untraceable. Remarkably, he was right (On the eleventh try). But he didn't expect to hear what he would say.

"Zdraast vooeeche (**Hello**) Jason, I'm in the Lab right now."

"What?" Jason asked, completely surprised at this.

"Da, someone's banging on the elevator door though."

"Dad! Unlock the elevator! It's Odd, one of my new friends."

"Laadna," (**Okay**) He said, not really sounding like he cared.

"Oh, and don't let the brown haired girl touch you, she has a virus she got from the scanners."

Jason heard the door open on the other end, then the sound of someone falling.

"Okay Jason, they're in." Nikolai said.

"Thank you." Jason sighed.

Nikolai hung up.

Odd saw the boy sitting at the computer screen. He had brown hair, a little darker than Ulrich's, he was wearing a blue Metallica: Ride The Lightning t-shirt, and wore black jeans. His shoes were simple skater shoes. He looked about Yumi's age.

"Who are you?" Odd asked. Ulrich looked up and recognized him.

"Nikolai?"

Nikolai just stared at Ulrich, who was picking herself up from the floor. The door shut as the elevator left.

"Padazhdaats (**Hold on**), you look just like that boy I saw on Lyoko yesterday." He continued staring for a few more seconds, then his eyes went wide, and he fell to the floor, laughing.

"Wow!" Nik laughed, "I've heard of side effects from the scanners, but that's freaking FUNNY!"

Ulrich blushed, Odd started to get mad. She was about to go off on Nikolai when Jeremie, Aelita, and Lilly exited the elevator that had just arrived. Lilly was surprised to see that her father had physically reverted to a teen. It was kind of funny when she thought about it. She then looked at Ulrich to see that he had become a girl just like Odd. Now _that_ was weird. Jeremie didn't know who this new guy was though, so Aelita did introductions.

"Jeremie, Odd," She said, "This is Nikolai. I don't remember him, but he remembers me."

"Wait," Nikolai said, turning to look at Aelita "What do you mean you don't remember me? I knew your father, we all worked on the Lyoko project together."

"I kind of recognize you," Aelita explained, "But I don't remember anything from before the supercomputer's reactivation."

Nikolai sighed, turned to the computer, devirtualized Wolfe, and had him come to the Lab. The two of them explained how, from 1988 to 1993, they had worked together on the Lyoko project. Nikolai talked about how Aelita would come and play around the Lab, how the professor (Hopper) would get them out of class to work on the project, and how XANA had gained control in the end, making them fugitives and flee country1994.

"I had thought that Dr. Shaeffer had fled with Aelita," Nikolai said, "But the fact that he put her into the computer... Bozhe moi, what was he thinking?"

"He put himself in too." Jeremie pointed out.

"Yeah, and XANA scattered his data..." Greg said, "I was in a tower, checking the diagnostics when I found that out."

They all turned as they heard the elevator start up. When it returned, Dee and William entered the large room. William did not look happy to be anywhere near XANA's human form.

"I have discovered something about myself." Dee said. (**AN: I based Dee/XANA off of Dorothy from Big O. If you haven't seen the show, Dorothy is a badass, emotionless android who doesn't understand humans at all, except her master.**)

"What is it?" Jeremie asked, sighing. XANA could have the dumbest reasons for interrupting.

"Let me show you." She walked over to a loose wire and touched it. At first nothing happened, but then it sparked. It didn't seem like much, but to Jeremie, it was as if the world had ended. XANA still had his powers!

"That's not good." Jeremie said.

"I did not intend to have my abilities in the real world. I had calculated that ZETA would have taken them away."

"Well, it looks like he wanted to give you a chance." Lilly said.

Meanwhile, in the supercomputer, ZETA was no more. He had absorbed the OMICRON program, making him more powerful. He was now ULTIMA. He was currently planning on how to absorb KAPPA when he came across one of OMICRON's actions. The program had taken one of the genetic samples that XANA had collected, and morphed it into a bacteriophagial retrovirus. He had tested it on the one the humans called Odd. Then he had added a contagion to it, with a suicide chain of three links. (**Good GOD! I'm such a nerd!**) The virus could spread to three other people now, and the one called Ulrich Stern was infected. It didn't seem to affect the one who's genetic data was used to make it. ULTIMA could change that.

"It is time too make a pandemic occur."

When Ulrich would go to be examined, ULTIMA would send KAPPA to make the necessary changes to the virus.

Back in the Lab, Odd was accompanying Ulrich down to the scanner room. She entered a scanner. The machine started up.

Back in the Lab, Jeremie noticed that there was an activated tower in the mountain sector. Then the situation turned to hell in a hand basket. (Minus the rabid cat)

The light in the scanner seemed to flicker for a second, and then Ulrich was virtualized. She landed in the desert sector.

"Jeremie, why was I virtualized?"

[static]

"That's creepy," She muttered to herself, then thought she heard something, "Hello? Jeremie?"

"I... -ending... -dd and Ni..."

Ulrich couldn't understand the words, but then saw Odd and Nikolai virtualize behind her.

"Holy crap!" Odd said, her eyes wide.

"Does this s*** happen every day?" Nikolai asked.

"It seems like it."

"What's going on out there?" Ulrich asked.

Odd laughed at Ulrich.

"You're wearing a dress! HA!"

Ulrich hadn't gotten a chance to examine herself yet. This statement caught her attention and she franticly checked herself over. Though wearing just about everything she did as a guy, she had a skirt that was the same color as the shirt.

"That's not fair! How come I'm dressed differently and you're not?"

"Ladies," Nikolai said, "Can we _please_ focus on the situation at hand?"

"I could if I knew what was going on." Ulrich said.

"ZETA activated a tower and, well, the computer went haywire," Nik explained, "I don't really know what's going on, but it's freaking me out."

"We don't have Aelita," Odd pointed out, "How will we deactivate the tower?"

"I can deactivate it if the problem isn't too serious." Nikolai said.

"Then let's go!" Odd said. They ran towards the tower, which was luckily near by. Ulrich could feel another head ache coming on, but it wasn't short and painful, it was long and aching. She could still concentrate, barely though.

It seemed almost too easy to get to the tower. They encountered one monster. Odd and Ulrich had never seen it before, but Nikolai said that Greg had fought one earlier that day. He called it a tortoise.

Nikolai took it down with a Conduction attack on it's head. They made it to the tower and Nikolai entered. He ran to the center of the platform and floated to the top. He put his hand on the virtual screen. It confirmed with "Nikolai" and he entered "Code Lyoko". The tower deactivated and he left. Jeremie pulled them out.

"Crisis averted." Is all Nikolai could say when they got to the Lab, which looked a little shaken up. Ulrich looked terrible. She had a cough and looked pale, her eyes were bloodshot. Ulrich was definitely worse off then Odd had been.

"Did you find anything Jeremie?" Ulrich asked, sounding weak.

"I found that the virus can only spread to three people," The genius said, sounding relieved, "And that it only passes by touch."

"Is that all?"

"Jason is immune to it, and it appears that his dad is too."

"Sazhalets for interrupting," (**Sorry for interrupting**) Nikolai said, "But, please, just call me Nikolai."

"Okay," Jeremie said, "Now, I've noticed that the virus only seems to affect males."

"So that means that Yumi and Aelita are safe?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah."

"What about a cure?"

Jeremie just wanted to skip that question. But, he should be truthful to his friends.

"I don't know if that's possible with the current resources we have."

"So you're saying I'm stuck?"

"No no, I'm just saying that there may be a chance that you'll have to get used to your new body."

"Can't you just put me in the scanner and alter my DNA?" Ulrich said after thinking for a second.

"The scanners don't work like that Ulrich!" Jeremie shouted, getting frustrated with Ulrich's stubbornness, "You can't just put someone in the scanner, alter their DNA, and hope for the best!"

"Do it." She turned around and walked to the elevator. Nikolai grabbed her arm.

"Let go!" Ulrich fought Nikolai.

"You need to go and rest," He said, "I helped make Lyoko into what you know today. It can leave you drained after a while."

"I'm fine!" Ulrich said, beginning to cough.

"No you're not, you have a fever, you're weak, you have a bad cough, I can tell that you're sick."

"I'm telling you, I'm fine!" She tried to break free, but Nik did a quick twist, and before Ulrich knew it, she had her arms wrapped around herself, unable to move them.

"Ulrich, you need to get some rest," Jeremie said, "I'll try to find a cure tonight."

After a few seconds, Ulrich just nodded. Nikolai let go of her arms, and there was a silence in the room. Nikolai's phone broke the silence.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Resnovik!" Said a familiar, non-disguised voice, it sounded like a familiar Californian who had gone to Kadic in the late '80s, "Long time no see!"

"Carthum?"

"Yeah, last time I saw you... You were-"

"Running for my life."

"Yeah, that's it."

"I take that this call isn't to catch up."

"Nah," Tim said, "I'm coming to take you off your handler's hands."

"Why?"

"They want a _real_ agent looking after you and Wolfe."

"_Why_?"

"They're punishing me for screwing up an assassination."

"What assassination?"

"It should be all over the news."

"_What assassination_!"

"Never mind, I have your location, I'll be there in two minutes."

The phone hung up.

"Who was that?" Greg asked.

"Tim Carthum."

"What in the bloody hell does he want?"

"He's gonna be our watcher. He'll tell us about it when he gets here."

Nikolai turned to the Lyoko warriors, "Well, we'll see you guys tomorrow. Greg and I are going to Kadic... _again_."

"The one thing that sucks after reactivation." Greg pointed out.

The two said their goodbyes and went to the elevator. Not long after they left, Jeremie looked at his watch. It was around 1pm, they didn't have to go back for another eight hours. Ulrich agreed to have Odd take her back to their room. Lilly thought that she should get a hold of Jason and complain about how they hadn't been spending much time together, they _were_ twins after all. Aelita persuaded Jeremie to go to the mall with her (God save him now). Yumi had wanted to go to a movie with Ulrich, but because of his _sickness_, she was alone for the evening until William asked if he could go, just as friends. Dee saw no point in any of these activities. She decided meditate in her room (Nobody wanted her at the factory unsupervised).

In the interface, ULTIMA congratulated KAPPA. The virus would now spread indefinitely, the infected would release air-borne pathogens for the first three days of infection, and it was not limited by genetics anymore. This was sure to cause chaos. By ULTIMA's calculations, the virus would cover Paris within two days, the whole country by a week, the continent by three, and the world within a month and a half.

KAPPA was praising ULTIMA, when the master program engulfed him. Now there was only OMEGA. A red "Ω" flashed on the screens in the Lab, and a black one flickered in someone's eyes.


	8. Pandemic

It was 8:30 when Jeremie got back to his room. The second he entered the room, he heard gunfire and what sounded like a warzone with moans and groans. He looked to see Jason laying on the floor, staring straight up, with a controller in his hand.

Jeremie then looked up to see a flat screen TV anchored to the ceiling. There were cords and cables stuck to the wall that led behind Jason's bed, where there was a game console.

Jason paused the game and looked up at Jeremie.

"Morgan is a genius." Was all the twin could say.

"Why do you a TV on the ceiling?"

"Because I couldn't find anywhere else to put it."

"What are you playing?"

"Operation: Z-Day."

"Isn't that the new zombie game?"

"Yeah, you wanna play?"

"Not now, I need to find a cure for Ulrich, and you're the only other person I know who knows about genetics."

"Well, I'm kinda busy. I'm fending off a horde off zombies at the battle of Day 3."

Jeremie thought about it for a minute, it was almost 8:45, and he had all night to work on a cure.

"I guess a break wouldn't hurt."

"Awesome," Jason said, tossing him a controller, "Let's play."

About three hours later, Jeremie thought about what Jason had said when he walked into the room, "What did you mean by saying that Morgan was a genius?"

Jason paused the game, "Oh, she came up with the idea to put the TV on the ceiling."

"How did you get it up there?"

"Don't ask," Jason said, sighing, "Because I don't know how she did it."

"You mean you didn't even see her do it?" Jeremie asked, turning to see Jason.

"Nope, I went to get her a soda," Jason shrugged, "I came back, and she had it set up."

"Why were you hanging out with her, anyway?"

"Apparently, her and Odd had plans, but Odd 'disappeared'."

"So she wanted company and decided to hang out with you?"

"I guess so."

Jeremie thought for a second, then just gave up on the subject. He noticed that he wasn't feeling well. He didn't think anything more about it, and went to bed.

"Well, here we are," Tim said, opening the door to his new apartment, "Home sweet penthouse."

"Holy s***!" Nikolai said, "Is the Agency paying for this?"

"Yep."

Greg and Nikolai looked at each other, then back at Tim.

"We never got anything like _this_ from the Agency."

"Well," Tim said, "I'm an elite, so that means I get better stuff."

"So where do we sleep?"

"There are two rooms on that end of the apartment." Tim said, pointing to the other end of the large living room. The two walked over to them and opened the door, they were huge!

"Nice," Greg said, "No more motels for me."

* * *

Jeremie woke up, feeling terrible. He wondered why. Jason was out of bed and gone already.

"Oh my god!" Jeremie shouted, looking at the clock. There was something up with his voice, but he didn't care, he had overslept. He was about to run out the door when he fell over.

"What just..." Jeremie wondered out loud, when he looked at himself. What the hell? He didn't come into contact with Ulrich at all yesterday, why did he...?

She picked herself up and sat on the bed. This would explain a lot. He heard knocking on the door.

"Belpois!" Jim shouted, "Classes started an hour ago! Why aren't you in class?"

Jeremie didn't know what to do. If he didn't answer, Jim would come in and see him, if he did answer, Jim would hear the difference in his voice. He thought for a third option, the only way out was the window, but they were on the second floor. It was worth the risk.

She quietly opened the window and got up on the only clear part of the desk. She started hanging from the window, outside, trying to find a foothold. She found one, not too sturdy, but closed the window, and let go, hoping for bushes. Thank god for shrubbery.

Jim finally unlocked the door, finding the room empty.

"Hm, maybe he left already." Jim left, not noticing that the window was unlatched or that Jeremie's shoes were still in the corner.

Jeremie was hiding in the bushes, trying to keep out of sight. He could go to the factory, but the gym was full of people, and it would be a little awkward for him to be seen running across the campus over to the woods. She slowly crept out of the bushes, and ran towards the woods.

Once there, she hid behind a tree, looking to see if anyone followed her. It was good that she wore pajamas, this would be soooooo awkward if he slept in boxers. She continued running toward the manhole in the clearing.

Once she was at the factory, she called Aelita, and put a filter of her original voice on the call. No need to freak out Aelita in the middle of her class.

Aelita was in her History class when her phone vibrated. She glanced at it, noticed it was Jeremie, and then turned it off. She did not want to get on the teacher's nerves today. Gregory Wolfe was in her class. Apparently, he had a degree in history, so he was correcting the teacher on _every_ point of the crusades.

"I'm telling you," Greg said, "The Slaughter at Acre was because the citizens were fighting back!"

"And I'm telling you that it was civil unrest, that's all."

The funny thing was, they had been talking about the Middle Ages, before someone brought up the Crusades. Greg just sat down, feeling defeated. He looked at Aelita. What were the chances that he would be in the same class as her. He may have been twelve (physically), but he had been enrolled as an eighth grader.

He was wondering how Nik was doing.

Nikolai was sitting in Algebra class. He _hated_ this class. Yumi was sitting in the front, William next to her. Yumi's hand drifted down to her coat, where she pulled out her phone. She turned it off, and put it back, then rose her hand.

"Sir?" She asked, "I'm not feeling well, can I go to the infirmary?"

"Yes Yumi."

He continued his lecture as Yumi left. Nikolai didn't want to be suspicious, so he waited about ten minutes, and then used the same excuse. Amazingly, that worked.

He ran out to where he had seen Yumi go. He found her walking towards the woods.

"If I do recall," Nikolai said, "That is not where the infirmary is."

Yumi turned a little startled to see the boy. She had only seen his virtual form, and that was in the real world. She didn't know that he was actually that young.

"Why are you following me?" Yumi asked, suspicious.

"That's not a good way to start a conversation. I noticed that your phone went off, then you left. There are two possibilities, one: You are gonna be waiting out here for _someone_; or two: You're going to the factory. It's my job to keep an eye on that place, and that class is _horrible_."

"It was Jeremie," Yumi explained, "That normally means to come to the factory, but Aelita should be here by now."

"What do you mean?"

"She's normally the first one he calls."

"I'll be right back."

He went, building by building, window by window, until he found where Aelita was. He thought to knock on the window, but instead he waved his arms like an idiot. Aelita saw this, and eyed him strangely. Nik pointed at her, then at Greg, then pointed to the woods. She motioned towards the teacher.

Nik was about to give up when his cellphone beeped. He had set it up to receive alerts, just lke Jeremie's. He noticed how it had singled out one tower in the mountain sector, another in the forest sector, and yet another in the desert sector. He recognized the symbol too. It was OMEGA...

[**FLASHBACK**]

A thirteen year old Nikolai was on Lyoko. He was zapping a rouge program. Why did they always have to fight? He then saw a haze, not shady like XANA, but pitch black. It took a shape, but no form. The shape created a sword and stabbed the rouge program, deleting it forever.

"What the heck!" Nikolai said, almost not hearing Schaeffer's screams to get the hell out of there. He heard them and started running.

"Professor, what the heck is that thing?"

"It's OMEGA, a virus I made before XANA. You can't defeat it, just exit Lyoko."

"I think I can," Nik said, "I can use the strategy I used before, with Epsilon."

"That may work," Dr. Schaeffer thought out loud, "But you'll have to separate him in a tower so I can split his programming."

"Got it." Nik altered his direction so that he would end up at a tower. The haze was coming up fast.

"Super Sonic." He disappeared and reappeared by the tower. The virus was obviously gullable. It followed him into the tower.

"Alright, here it goes professor." Nik stood there. The virus engulfed him. He then grabbed his knife and stabbed his own hand.

"Lightning!" The pillar of electricity came down and hit him and the virus. He slashed randomly at the black fog. He split into three pieces.

"I'm splitting the programming now."

The fog tried to gather together, but it couldn't. It started to attack Nikolai.

"Professor!"

"I'm bonding it to three programs now."

One by one, the chunks of fog dispersed.

"Done." Schaeffer said.

Nikolai was devirtualized and entered the elevator. He went to the Lab, and was greeted by smiling Aelita. The seven-year old girl just stared at him.

"Hi Nikki!" The little girl said.

Did she forget that he was even here?

"How was Lyoko?" She asked.

"Fine," He replied, "Just another program going crazy again." Then he looked at the professor, "Professor Hopper?"

"Name." The old man said in a frustrated tone.

"_Dr. Schaeffer_, sorry, I was wondering if you could tell me what I just did in Lyoko."

"That was OMEGA."

"What is OMEGA?" Nik asked.

The man walked over to Aelita and asked her if she wanted to go down to the scanner room and play with Mister Puck. She smiled and ran off to the elevator. Waldo Schaeffer turned towards Nikolai and started to explain.

"OMEGA was my first attempt to create a virus to destroy project Carthage."

"What went wrong?"

"I never specified what Carthage was. It's artificial intelligence saw civilization as corrupt. Through a few glitches, it learned to see civilization as Carthage. I checked on it one day, to see that it had activated a tower on its own and somehow sent a... I don't know what it was, a ghost-like haze into the real world."

"That's impossible."

"Well, it did it, but the haze tried to leave the factory, I sent Timothy into Lyoko to see if the tower could be deactivated. He discovered a way to deactivate the tower, and the haze disappeared. I put the virus into a back up drive on the computer, but it must have found a way out. Now it is in pieces. You cannot let those three programs conjoin. Keep an eye on ZETA, that is where I put the AI program."

"Will do, professor."

"Now, could you go fetch Aelita?"

[**PRESENT**]

Nikolai snapped back to reality. If OMEGA was loose, then that could mean something horrible was about to happen. XANA was made to be a weaker version of OMEGA, a lot weaker.

Aelita had noticed the look on Nikolai's face and looked concerned, he just stared at her, a look of terror on his face. He saw her raise her hand, then stand up and walk out of the room. A minute later, she came out of the building. She waved for him to follow her.

"That was not quick at all." Yumi said as the two approached her.

"There are three activated towers." Nikolai said.

"Three? At the same time?" Yumi asked.

"Yeah."

"Let's just get to the factory," Aelita said, "Jeremie's tried to call me nine times. Something must be wrong."

They all nodded and started for the factory. When they got there, the elevator stopped, but didn't open. Jeremie put the voice filter for his old voice on again and spoke into the elevator.

"I'll unlock the door," He said, "If you promise not to laugh."

"Okay Jeremie," Aelita said, a little confused, "We won't laugh."

The elevator door opened, and they saw Jeremie. He was the same height, which Aelita thought was kind of funny and Nikolai saw that he was still a shrimp. Jeremie's blonde hair was down to her shoulders, but she was curled up on the chair. This was because she was still in her pajamas and wasn't wearing shoes. It was cold in the Lab.

"Guys," Jeremie said in a higher pitch, less nerdy voice, "I believe the term for Ulrich is patient Zero."

It hit Aelita right there, "How- Wha- Whe- Why- …?" She stuttered as her mind could not produce a single question to ask. She was wide eyed and looked like she could faint.

"Aelita?" Jeremie asked, "Are you okay?"

"I think she's just shocked," Yumi stated, "Like me."

"Prakleenaats," Nik muttered, "OMEGA must have done this..."

"OMEGA?" The three girls asked, almost simultaneously.

"OMEGA is the old version of XANA. Long story short, he was going to destroy civilization as we know it. I split him into three parts, and Hopper put him into three programs."

"ZETA, OMICRON, and KAPPA..." Jeremie finished.

"Yeah," Nikolai confirmed, "I told you ZETA was bad news."

"Well, let's get to work," Yumi said, "It's gonna be a long day."

Yumi and Aelita headed for the scanners, but Nik pulled out his phone.

"What are doing?" Jeremie asked.

"I've gotta report this to the Operator."

"Report what?"

"OMEGA and a possible epidemic."

"What epidemic?"

"I'm guessing you were refraining from contact with... Ulrich?"

"Yeah, because it passes by touch."

"Now you are experiencing symptoms."

"Yeah..."

"So that means it's airborne."

Jeremie was silent as she thought about it. That would mean that they would have to isolate William, XANA, Odd, Lilly, and Ulrich (of course). But then, Jeremie thought about the previous night. They didn't know it was airborne, and they had gone into public! Her and Aelita must have easily infected half the city. William and Yumi were in a full movie theater, and Odd could have been hanging out with Morgan somewhere, infecting more people. Then the infection would have spread exponentially. The entire city must be infected by now!

"Uh, Jeremie?" Yumi asked from the scanner room.

Nikolai was just hanging up and went to the elevator.

"Oh, sorry," Jeremie said, "Uh, transfer Yumi, transfer Aelita, scanner Yumi, scanner Aelita."

A little box popped up, it showed that they were ready to go.

"Virtualization." She said.

"My turn Jeremie," Nikolai said, "Send me to the desert sector."

"Okay, transfer Nikolai, scanner Nikolai... Virtualization."

Nikolai dropped into the wasteland. He saw that OMEGA had brought back a few friends. Two krabs and a tarantula were guarding the way tower.

"This will be interesting." Nikolai said.

"..." There was nothing coming from Jeremie.

"Jeremie?"

"... I'm fine, this virus seems to be getting worse [cough]"

"I can leave if you want, I can use the computer."

"No, we need all the help we can get."

"Okay, can you call Gre-"

"What?"

"Greg!" Nikolai said, freaking out, "He's not immune! He's in class!" This seemed make the monsters aggressive. They turned towards him, and he noticed that there were "Ω" signs on their heads, instead of XANA's emblem.

"Really?" He ran towards one, dagger drawn. He leaped and jammed the dagger into the krab's mark. He then pulled it out, stabbed his hand, jumped back and yelled, "Lightning!" The column of plasma hit the two remaining monsters, obliterating their life points.

"Aelita get down!" Yumi shouted as she saw the mantis try to shoot her. Yumi's fan hit it on the chest, right on its mark. It fell and exploded. Now there were the hornets.

Yumi was about to throw her fans when a laser hit the hornet. It exploded immediately. She looked around and saw Jason appear out of nowhere. He looked at Yumi, then turned to the tower, disappearing again.

"Jeremie," Yumi tried to get the attention of the blonde at the computer, "Is Jason on Lyoko?"

"No, he's not appearing anywhere."

"I haven't seen him at all today," Aelita said, "And he's in my first class of the day."

"Well, I just saw him run towards the tower." Yumi said.

"Lets go." Aelita said, already running towards the tower.

She entered, and saw Jason standing at the edge. There was something different about him, but Aelita couldn't point it out. He stepped over the edge and plunged into the data stream. Aelita wanted to go after him, but she needed to deactivate the tower. She did so, then told Jeremie about what she had seen.

"That would explain why I couldn't get a hold of him." Jeremie said.

"I'm going after him." Aelita announced.

"What? Are you crazy?"

Aelita ignored Jeremie's female voice. God, it was so strange to hear that voice, it was like Jeremie's but it wasn't like it. She jumped into the data stream, concentrating on Jason. She came out in a tower, but it was dark. Every now and then, a strip of code would move along a wall, but it was utterly dark. She exited the tower and looked around. It was Lyoko, but she had never seen this place before. It was like a city, but it was torn up. There didn't seem to be anywhere to fall into the digital sea. It was all solid ground. Then she saw movement. It was slow, and definitely not mechanical.

"Jason?" She asked, cautiously walking toward the figure, "Jason, is that you?"

It looked human, but it turned it's face toward her. It was disturbing. There was no face on the thing, it was just a "Ω" mark. Aelita stepped back slowly, hoping that the thing didn't see her, but it did. It shambled toward her, like it didn't know how to walk. A laser came from behind Aelita and hit the head of the creature. It fell and exploded, but left a green puddle, like the creepers.

"Damn zombie." Came a voice from behind her. She turned to see Jason, but his avatar was different. He was wearing a trench coat, under that was a black and gray camo jumpsuit.

"Jason?"

"Hi Aelita," He greeted her, keeping such a monotonous face that it would put Ulrich to shame, "Why did you follow me?"

"What is this place?" Aelita asked looking around.

"I asked you a question."

"We've been trying to get a hold of you for a while. Yumi and I saw you save us. Why are you on Lyoko?"

Jason was silent for a long time.

"I'm the source of the infection..." He finally said, "When I heard that Ulrich was contagious, I knew that it would only be a matter of time. So I did what I thought was best, and put myself into Lyoko. As for where we are, I got the idea from a video game I played with Jeremie last night."

"Wait, what do you mean that it would only be a matter of time?"

"I've told you about my DNA, that's how Odd became a girl, then Ulrich. I kept Jeremie from looking for a cure because there is none..."

"Jeremie wants to find a cure now..." Aelita muttered.

"Why?"

"Jeremie is a girl now. Your dad says that a new virus called OMEGA changed the old virus so it would spread."

Jason had a scared look on his face, but only for a second. He fell to the virtual ground, laughing. He stood back up.

"I'm sorry, I just imagined Jeremie as a girl, and I couldn't control myself. It's just too funny."

"Shut up Jason!" Jeremie's high pitched voice made their ears hurt, even on Lyoko.

"I'm guessing that you've been listening for a while now?" Jason asked the sky.

"I came in when you were laughing."

"I'm sorry Jeremie, or whatever you want your name to be."

"Where are you guys?" Jeremie asked, "I don't recognize thi- There are a crap load of enemies headed your way!"

"Oh, would you look at that." Jason said.

There was not just a horde of those new creatures, there was an army.

"Odd would hate this..." Aelita said.

"I don't suppose you use a weapon?" Jason asked.

"No."

Jason pulled out his machete and handed it to the pinkete.

"I hope it's easy to use." He said.

"Thanks."

Jason then pulled his guns, but Aelita noticed that they were different. There were small like pistols, but they had grips in the front.

"Machine pistols," He told her, "I thought I should upgrade."

She was going to say something when she saw something disturbing. One of the monsters was approaching Jason from behind, and the bottom half of it's face seemed to split open. These things had mouths! And they had some kind of tentacle thing in there. It looked like something from the scyphozoa, but more tongue-like. The tongue was heading for Jason when he spun around and shot the thing in the head.

"Take that Mutha F*****r!" He shouted, "Sorry, common phrase in American zombie movies."

But Aelita wasn't paying attention, the zombies were running, though awkwardly, towards them.

"Get ready," Jason said, "I'm guessing those tentacles drain life points."

Aelita raised the machete, it was much easier to use than Ulrich's sword. She kept the defensive position though, letting Jason do the fighting. Jason plunged into the crowd.

"Jeremie..." Nikolai said, "I don't think I can keep doing this..." He had deactivated four towers, and for every one he deactivated, OMEGA activated another. Yumi was devirtualized after Aelita didn't exit the tower.

"Just try to hang in there Nik," Jeremie said, "Aelita and Jason need your help, I'll try to set you up on the data stream."

"What?"

"Just go."

Nikolai stepped off of the platform and fell into the data stream, coming out in the dark tower.

"Jeremie, I shouldn't be here."

"Why?" asked the echoing voice.

"This is the Dead Zone," He explained, "I promised the AIs here that I wouldn't return."

"The Dead Zone?

"Yeah, it's a part of the desert sector. It's not on the map, but it's hell."

"What were the AIs you mentioned?"

"They're kind of like a native population. They look like people, but are very creepy looking."

"There are monsters like that, they're attacking Jason and Aelita."

"Those aren't the AIs," Nik corrected, "Those are shamblers (**zombies from a book series I read**) they're like zombies."

"Well, there are a bunch of them."

"How many?"

"Too many for you or Jason to take out."

Nik was silent for a minute, he was thinking.

"Get them away from the area, don't worry, there will be a dotted red circle, as long as they are past that point, they'll be safe."

"What are you doing?"

Nik ran out of the tower, "Just keep them out of the circle!"

He found Aelita standing at the edge of a horde of shamblers. They were uglier than he remembered. They had pale skin, no hair, no face (except for a mouth), and wore shredded pants and shirts. They looked like messed up zombies.

Aelita was standing in the dumbest position one could in that situation. She was holding Jason's machete like Ulrich would with one sword out. Jason was in the crowd. He had two machine pistols out and was shooting the creatures so quickly, it was like he was using his frenzy technique.

"Jason," Jeremie said, "I'm setting up an Overboard, get Aelita out of there."

"Why?" Jason asked, shooting a zombie coming from behind.

"Your dad is gonna try something crazy and destructive."

"Isn't that Odd's job?" Aelita asked, trying to lighten the mood.

The Over board appeared and Nikolai zapped a shambler with a shock bolt. Jason grabbed Aelita and they got on the vehicle, flying away.

"Just keep going guys," Jeremie said, seeing the circle appear, "Oh god, it's a blast range."

"I'll take that as a sign to speed it up?"

"Drastically." Jeremie said.

Jason put the Overboard into full throttle. They were going faster than Jeremie would have recommended, but this was a dangerous situation.

Nikolai ran towards the center of the horde. Once there, he started his attack. He cut his chest with the knife, taking half his life points. He threw up a shield around him. He then used Super Sonic to shoot into the sky.

"Are they out Jeremie?" He asked the programmer.

"Yeah," She confirmed, "They're out of the blast range."

"Plasma Drop!"

What Aelita and Jason saw would forever change their thoughts on strength. Up to that day, Aelita had thought that a Kolussus was the strongest thing on Lyoko, but the power of Nikolai's attack could have made XANA drool and get a nose bleed... At the same time. Jason's idea was that it would look like a normal explosion. In truth, it was like an H-bomb minus the mushroom cloud. They saw a white streak come from the sky, hit the ground, then a tiny spark. They thought that that was it, but then a gigantic bubble of electricity seemed to explode out of nowhere. It consumed the area they had just escaped. After what seemed like forever, the bubble popped, nearly knocking them off of the Overboard.

Nikolai had dropped from the sky, he saw the horde come up at impossible speeds. His impact destroyed alone destroyed a few surrounding zombies. He saw his hands spark and the entire ground was electrified. He then saw a huge white flash as the power formed the bubble that eliminated the rest of the horde. When the bubble, popped, he looked around. No being in sight. He then saw himself devirtualize, and he collapsed, his wireframe disappearing before he hit the ground. He exited the scanner, then started laughing.

"Haha! I haven't done that in FOREVER!" He walking to the elevator and started drumming on its metal interior.

At the Lab, he saw Jeremie staring at the screens. The blonde girl turned to face him, her mouth open in shock.

"Since when could you do something like that?" She asked.

"Since I first used it on Lyoko."

"When was that?" Yumi asked. She was standing by the elevator.

"Back when there were still Soviets." Nik answered.

Yumi smiled at this, but he was serious.

"Well, that could come in handy later on."

Aelita was the first to snap out of it. She shook Jason and he was back to reality too. It was such a brilliant sight, the explosion. They decided to try to deactivate these towers. They went to the mountain sector and got to the tower without resistance. That was strange. What's more, OMEGA didn't activate any more towers. Jason then escorted Aelita to the ice sector, where she deactivated the tower without resistance once again. They deactivated the last in the forest sector. The virus wasn't putting up a fight at all.

After Aelita and Jason were devirtualized, they went up to the Lab. Jeremie, Nikolai, Yumi, and Aelita surrounded Jason.

"We need an explanation," Jeremie said, "NOW."

"Uhm," Jason started, "Where do I start?"

"You told me that it was your fault with what happened to Odd." Aelita pointed out.

Jason lowered his head, "The computer took a sample of my DNA, and converted it into a virus. It's that simple."

"Which part of your DNA?" Jeremie asked.

"I've already told you," Jason said, getting frustrated, "The part that says that I'm supposed to be a girl!"

Nikolai went pale. Why didn't _he_ know about this?

"What?" Nik asked.

"I found that out last year," Jason explained, "Nobody knew why I had my sister's build. All x-rays showed that my skeleton was even female. They did a chromosome test and it said that I should be female. There is no reason why I'm not female. It makes no sense."

"Why didn't any one tell me?"

"I didn't want you to know," Jason stated, "That simple."

He turned to go, but then Jeremie asked a good question.

"Why were you in Lyoko?"

"I..." The twin tried to form his thoughts into words, "I thought that I could postpone the virus's effects if I kept myself virtualized."

"That's a stupid idea." Yumi said. Aelita shot a glare at her.

"Let's just go," Jason said, "My plans have been ruined for today, I might as well give in."

"Wait," Jeremie said, "What are we gonna do about me?"

"Well," Aelita said, "Yumi might be able to find a way to make you look like you used to."

Yumi sighed, "Come on."

Jeremie left with Yumi. Nikolai was going to go back to school when he noticed that classes were over. He decided to go back to the apartment. Aelita and Jason returned to the dorm building.

Jason opened his door, hoping to just get some sleep, when he heard his game. Odd and Morgan were laying on the floor with game controllers.

"What the hell is going on?" Jason asked.

The two girls looked at him, pausing the game.

"Oh," Odd said, "Hey Jason."

"I hope you don't mind," Morgan said, "Odd said that Ulrich wasn't feeling like himself. He's really sick. So I suggested we come in here."

"How did you get in?" Jason asked, suspiciously.

"Jeremie forgot to lock the door." Odd shrugged.

"Well," He said, "That makes me feel secure."

"I think it's time for us to go, though." Morgan said.

"Can we finish this level?" Odd asked Jason, "Please?"

"Fine, but I join in. Jeremie's... Out tonight."

They all laid on the floor, playing the game. Once the level had finished, the two girls left and Jason was left by himself. He turned the TV off and crawled into bed, not sure of what will happen to him in the morning.

OMEGA was very satisfied with the results. His calculations had been off. The virus was spreading more quickly than anticipated. By now, it was spread around the planet. Within the week, the entire human population will be in disarray. He was very pleased with this. If only the three programs that held him did not get rid of XANA... Maybe he can persuade her to join him.


	9. Chaos Begins

**Sorry for the wait, but it's done! This one does have a cliff hanger though... But plenty of those awkward moments people love. Anyways, on with the story!**

* * *

Jason stirred, then opened his eyes halfway.

"...Hello..." He muttered, half asleep, "...Do you...come here often...?"

Jeremie wanted to say something, but knew that Jason wasn't completely awake. Jeremie was thinking about this virus. Who would it effect next? She decided to go onto the computer and try to find a cure.

After about two hundred lines of code, Jeremie started to think about a name for herself if they couldn't find a cure. She had typed up a whole list, deleting ones he didn't like. The final two were Jennifer and Jessica.

"This is only a last resort..." She mumbled., then looked at the clock. She was so tired, and it was only 11pm. Normally, Jeremie would stay up until 2am. She went to bed, just wishing this was a nightmare.

* * *

None such luck, but Jeremie hadn't slept that well in forever.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty," Jason said, shaking her, "We're going to miss breakfast."

"Don't call me that," She said, groggily, "Did you know you talk in your sleep?"

"No, why?"

"I think you were hitting on me last night."

Jason stopped what he was doing and let out a chuckle.

"That's a good joke Jeremie."

"I mean it."

"Well, how do you know it wasn't a dream?" He said smiling.

"Your eyes were half open," Jeremie said, "You were looking straight at me."

"Well," He said, feeling embarrassed, "Then let's never speak of this again." He turned and continued what he was doing.

Jeremie just shrugged, and went to get dressed. When she was ready (after 20 minutes), they started going down to the cafeteria. When they got there, it was close to empty.

"Where is everyone?" Jason asked. Nikolai and Greg were sitting at a table with Odd, Morgan and William, who had his head down, probably sleeping. Nik waved Jeremie and Jason over to the table.

"This is bad." Nik said as the two got over to the table. Morgan was talking to Odd, quietly. The look on her face was a mix of confusion and fear.

"What's going on?" Jeremie asked, sitting down.

"Almost the entire school is infected," Nikolai said, "Classes are canceled because of it."

"Where's Aelita?" Jeremie asked, scared of what could have happened.

"She hasn't called you?"

"No, not today."

They heard Odd, "Okay, okay, I'll ask them," She turned to the four people, "Can we tell Morgan our secret?"

"Odd," William sighed, sitting up and rubbing his temples, "That's a horrible idea."

"Why? Because of what happened to you?" Odd asked.

"Hey I had no control of what I did."

"Do we have to argue right now?" Nikolai asked, "Because, I don't know if you noticed, but it's Doomsday."

"The world isn't gonna end." Jason said.

"No," Greg said, "But if it gets chaotic enough, civilization will."

"Listen," Morgan said, "If you tell me your secret, I'll keep it."

"It's more of a seeing is believing kind of thing." Odd stated.

"Should we really take her to the factory?" Nikolai asked. Jeremie's laptop started beeping.

"Well, we've gotta go anyway," Jeremie said, "I've got to find Aelita though." Nikolai and Greg just went off to the woods, Odd told Morgan to meet her by the gym, and Jason went with Jeremie to find Aelita.

Jeremie suggested to check her room, and she was right. They knocked on the door, and Lilly opened it.

"Um," Jason's sister stuttered, "Maybe you shouldn't come in right now."

"Why?" Jason asked.

"Aelita doesn't want to be seen right now..."

"What happened?" Jeremie asked, frustrated and fearing for Aelita.

Lilly looked around, then pulled the two into the room. She was stronger than Jeremie would have thought. Seeing, Aelita, Jeremie sighed that his fears were _not_ confirmed, if anything she looked _better_ than usual.

"What's wrong Aelita?" Jeremie asked, seeing that she had been crying.

"I had the worst dream..." She muttered.

"What was it?"

"I don't remember... But it was terrifying."

"Those monsters yesterday," Jason pointed out, "They must have given her nightmares."

"That would make sense," Jeremie said, "They don't have faces, that would give me nightmares. But not Jason, he was dreaming about me."

Everyone just stared at Jeremie. Had his mind always been like that? Since when did he get that far off of a subject, and why would he point something like _that_ out?

"I already told you," Jason said, as calmly as he could, "That we would never speak of that again." He was thinking of a few ways to kill Jeremie for not keeping a secret like that. Drowning always seemed like the best choice in these situations.

"Oh, sorry." Jeremie said, her face getting red.

"What kind of dream, BROTHER?" Lilly asked, glaring at her twin.

"Not _that_ kind of dream!" He shouted, "That's sick, how could you think of something like that?" He tried to turn it back on her, but it didn't work. He just apologized and turned to face Aelita.

"Do you think you'll be fine to go onto Lyoko?"

"I guess," She replied, "I just don't feel too good."

"OMEGA's attacking again," Jeremie said, "It's just one tower right now, but it could get worse."

"Let's go then." Aelita said, standing up. They all left the room.

Nikolai threw his phone down. He still couldn't get in touch with Tim. He had disappeared before Nik got back to their apartment. Greg said that he gotten a call to go on a mission. Where was Carthum?

His thoughts were interrupted when said phone rang, it was the man he had been trying to get in touch with. HE picked up the phone.

"Tim, where in the HELL are you?"

"Just left Ethiopia," He answered plainly, "Civil unrest. You won't believe what's causing it."

"Epidemic?"

"All over the world, and I did some recon to see what the government was doing..."

"Well, what did you find out?"

"It's more in your ballpark," He answered, "They were possessed, every last member of their military, government, and even their president. They were moving tanks with OMEGA's symbol on it."

"What was in the tanks?"

"That's the really bad part," He said, a scared tone in his voice, "The tanks were full of VX."

"Nerve gas?" Nik asked.

"It's more dangerous than that," He explained, "Twenty seconds in this gas, and you won't even have nerves."

"So, is OMEGA declaring war?"

"Maybe, but it was going on in the old Carthage building there."

"There was a Carthage branch in Ethiopia?"

"Yeah, it's the newest one, and first to be shut down by the UN's wrist-slapping division." (reference to political cartoon)

"Well," Nik said, "This just got interesting. You mentioned an epidemic?"

"You need to watch the news more. The whole world is infected. I can't explain the details, but I can tell you it isn't fatal. It's more like a mass fake-out. People get sick, but then they're fine afterwords."

"Well, I need to get to the factory, I'll call you later."

"I'm about to land at the airport... probably shouldn't be on a phone at all."

Nik hung up, sighing, and stepped out of the elevator. He was thinking on why he had to work with idiots when he found what OMEGA had done. There was a raven-haired girl sitting in the computer chair. She turned to look at him, and he saw the mark in her eyes.

"Eesos Kirstos..." Nik muttered before an electrified punch hit him in the gut. Greg pushed the up button and watched as the doors closed before the girl could get to them. The only thing that came to his mind was that part from the Godzilla movie: Elevator opens, Godzilla babies look at man in elevator, man says, "Wrong floor." Doors shut.

Odd was walking Morgan across the bridge to the factory. She went down the line first, then helped the other girl down. They were walking towards the elevator, Odd wondering how he would explain that he used to be a boy to her, when Greg came running out of the elevator, shouting something about how OMEGA possessed some girl and took Nikolai down. He ran into Odd, who fell over.

"What the hell Greg?" Odd exclaimed, rubbing her head, which had hit the ground when she fell.

"That girl's crazy! I haven't seen anybody get possessed, I just read about it!" He eventually started to speak gibberish, and with his thick British accent, Odd couldn't make out a single word he was saying. She then did something that happened to her hundreds of times, she slapped him across the face, bringing him to his senses.

"What is he talking about?" Morgan asked.

"It isn't safe here, Morgan," Odd said, "We need to go."

"But, what were you gonna show me?"

Just then, a figure crawled out from behind the elevator. Her hands were electrified so she could move on the walls, and she had a truly evil look on her face.

"Hello, humans." The girl said in a very evil voice as she stepped onto the floor. The voice was like when XANA possessed someone, but more of an overpowering tone in it.

"What do you want OMEGA?" Odd asked.

"I just wanted you to meet my friend. She's like a little sister to me."

They saw Dee walk out of the elevator. She had XANA's (her's) mark in her eyes.

"You see," The possessed girl said, "With my help, she has regained all of her powers as a polymorphic clone."

"Dee?" Odd asked.

"It's XANA, and it was always XANA." She said in her normal voice.

"This is a major plot twist," Greg pointed out, now calmed down, "Almost like a _bad_ Stephen King movie."

"This is not the time, Greg." Odd muttered.

"What are you gonna do with us?" Morgan asked, feeling truly scared.

"You can live," OMEGA said through his host, "The world will destroy itself anyway."

XANA looked at the possessed human, "You're just letting them go?"

"There is no need to kill them, they are incapable of stopping me."

"Stopping _you_?" XANA asked, cocking an eyebrow. It was a new thing she had started doing.

"Yes," OMEGA said, a smirk forming on the host's lips, "Just me." She shocked XANA in the back of the head and she fell to her knees. Then something really strange happened. She put both fingers on XANA's temples, and the two were surrounded with electricity. XANA was obviously in pain. She fell to the ground, unconscious, but breathing.

"What did you do?" Greg asked, shocked at the moment that didn't really make sense.

"Making sure that there would be no power struggle," OMEGA said, "Her abilities are neutralized."

A pitch black fog raised out of the human girl, and she fell to the floor. The fog dispersed. Morgan looked at Odd.

"This isn't every day is it?"

Odd just ignored the question and brought Morgan over to the elevator, and Greg dragged XANA over with them. The four of them rode down to the Lab. When the door opened, Morgan was in awe. She wanted to walk into the room, but there was an unconscious Nikolai laying on the floor in front of the elevator.

"Is he okay?" She asked.

"He's been through worse." Greg said, dragging XANA out of the elevator and sitting her against a wall. He then got Nikolai and put him next to XANA.

"Odd, get down to the scanners," Greg said, "I'll try to wake Nik up."

"Wait," Morgan said, "There's more?"

"Yeah," Odd said, "Two more rooms, but I'm only allowed to show you this room and the scanner room."

The two walked to the elevator and rode further down. Morgan was surprised at how much smaller this room was compared to the Lab.

"Welcome to the scanner room," Odd said, making a gesture for her to come in, "But until Jeremie trusts you, you can't use a scanner."

"What does it do?"

"When Nikolai wakes up, he'll show you."

There was a squeal over the PA system as Nikolai turned it on. This made Odd and Morgan cover their ears.

"Odd, get into the scanner," Nik said with a bit of pain in his voice, "We need to hurry."

"Okay." She walked into one of the scanners and the door shut.

"Morgan, was it?" Nikolai asked, when she nodded to the camera, he said, "Come on back up here."

She was back in the Lab right when he started to virtualize Odd.

"Scanner, Odd... Virtualization."

She saw a 3D image that looked like Odd, but it had a tail and was dressed like a video game character.

"Where's Odd?" She asked.

"She's been demolecularized and reconfigured in the supercomputer's software," Nikolai explained, but saw the confused look on Morgan's face, "In short, she's in virtual reality."

"Don't worry," Greg said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "It took me about two years to understand it."

"What kind of virtual reality?" Morgan asked.

"It's called Lyoko, and that is all I can explain right now," Nikolai said, "Odd's the only one in there and GREG hasn't gone in yet."

Greg caught the sign and ran to the elevator. He ran to a scanner and was virtualized.

Odd looked behind herself, seeing Greg virtualize. He landed on all fours, just like Odd would. But that wasn't the only similarity she noticed.

"You have a tail!"

"Yeah, so?"

"If you're virtualized based off of your DNA, wouldn't that mean that we're related?"

"That _is_ a possibility," Greg said, then in a sarcastic tone, "I'm British, you're Italian. That makes perfect sense, right?"

"Well, what about the Roman Empire, huh?" Odd asked, "Didn't they rule the world once?"

"Yeah, that does make more sense than what I was thinking."

"What _were_ you thinking?"

"Parallel universe."

"I thought that too, but you're too old for that to make sense."

"Kharawshee Bozhe," (**Good God**) Nikolai said, "Shut the hell up! OMEGA is trying to kill thousands of people and you're just standing there."

"First, we don't have Aelita, so no tower deactivation," Odd pointed out, "And second, what do you mean OMEGA is about to kill thousands of people?"

"I just got a call saying that OMEGA has possessed a whole government in Ethiopia. They have a few tons of VX nerve gas in their possession. It's weaponized."

"What's VX?" Odd asked nervously.

"It's a nerve agent that completely dissolves the target's nervous system." Greg explained.

"So what," Odd said, "They won't be able to feel anything."

"Your nervous system is what keeps you alive." Nikolai said.

"Oh." In the real world, Morgan slapped her forehead. Odd could really be stupid, but this wasn't the time.

"Hey, Nik?" Greg said to the virtual sky, "Where are we?" He had noticed that they were standing in what looked like an abandoned city-square. The coloration was similar to the desert sector.

"You don't remember the Dead Zone?"

Now it was Odd's turn, "The Dead Zone?"

"It's a part of the desert sector where there are no monsters except for shamblers." Greg answered.

"What are shamblers?" Odd asked.

"They're zombies." Nikolai answered from the sky.

Odd didn't know that one could hyperventilate on Lyoko, he didn't even know that they could breath. But she started to panic.

"Pull me OUT NOW!" She kept screaming this until Greg calmed her down. Well, he actually slapped her across the face (to return the favor), but it calmed her down.

"You know," He said, "I think that screaming will only attract them."

As if on cue, a shambler stumbled their way. Odd tried to not look at the face, thinking of when the whole school was turned into bite-happy zombies. But the face came into view anyway, and it was disturbing, mainly because it had no face. The bottom half split open, revealing a long, thin tongue.

"What is that?" She asked.

"It's a tongue." Greg said in a disgusted tone.

The monster's tongue left its mouth and went for Odd. It wrapped around her arm, and started to spark.

"What?" Odd stumbled, trying to break free. Greg ran up, and did something unexpected. He swiped his hand by the tongue and severed it. He didn't even touch it. The shambler reared in pain and Greg got it in the head with a laser arrow. It fell and exploded, leaving a puddle of goo like when a creeper died.

"It was draining your life points," Greg explained to Odd, "So I used my blade to cut off its tongue."

"What blade?" Odd asked, trying to get over the previous event.

Greg flexed his right hand, and a small blade came out of his sleeve. It was attached to his wrist.(**AN: I know, I know... Assassin's Creed reference... But it's still an AWESOME weapon**)

"Whoa," Odd said, wide-eyed, "That's so cool."

Greg didn't say anything, he brought a blade out on his other arm.

"What is it?" Odd asked, worried.

"Don't move." Greg said slowly.

Odd heard a sound behind her. Greg jumped from Odd's position and slashed a shambler behind her, just before landing.

"Tricky sons of bitches." He said.

"Guys," Nikolai said, "Maybe we can speed it up? There are thousands of lives at stake here."

"Sorry," Odd said, "Just a little side-tracked."

"You two are more alike than I thought." Nikolai said, sighing.

Morgan was bored. This was the secret? Yeah, it was cool. But she wasn't seeing the real action, the actual saving of the world.

"Is there anything else to this place?" She asked Nikolai.

"Well," He said, "You can explore the factory. That's always interesting. Or..."

"Or what?"

Nikolai sighed, should he tell her about the supply room? It was a huge room that wasn't in the computer or floor plans. It was like Area 51 for the Agency. The only difference was that it was never monitored.

"There's the supply room." He said.

Morgan looked at him strangely.

"You mean like a broom closet?"

"More like a warehouse," Nikolai replied, "Just go into the elevator, type in the code: 1189 into the pad. When the elevator stops, type in the code: 2633. The door will open and you can enter." He added in his mind, _And be out of my misery._

Morgan went into the elevator and followed the instructions. She expected to find a tiny room with nothing to do, but was, well, amazed at all the stuff in there. It was f****** huge! There was and old computer module in one corner, with two large metal tubes next to it. Those tubes looked similar to the... what did Odd call them? Oh yeah, scanners. These could have been older models. She decided to explore more, finding a rack of guns. Upon closer inspection, though, they were just dart guns. As she continued looking, Odd and Greg were up to there necks in virtual zombies.

This was quite literal, as the horde appeared not too long after the first two went down. They came out of the areas between the buildings and flooded the virtual streets. Odd, only having laser arrows, was trying to conserve ammunition. Greg had his blades out and was slashing anyone that got too close, except for Odd.

"This isn't working!" Greg shouted, angrily, "We need someone else!"

Jeremie, Aelita, Jason, and Lilly arrived at the factory and had just gone down to the Lab.

"Where's Morgan?" Jeremie asked, looking around the room.

"In a confidential area." Was all that Nikolai responded with.

Jason put his hand on Jeremie's shoulder, signaling to not ask any further.

"I can control the computer here," The Russo-American said, "You four go down to the scanners."

This made two of the four cringe.

"Uh, dad?" Jason said, "Only two of us here actually get virtualized."

"Oh, alright," Nikolai then single Jeremie out, "You stay here, the other three go. That's an order."

Lilly looked nervous. But it _was_ an order. She followed Jason and Aelita to the elevator, then entered a scanner in the room.

Nikolai was silent during his the process, using the key commands to control the machines.

"What do I do?" Jeremie asked.

"XANA was knocked byeassaznaatyelnee, sorry, unconscious," Nikolai said, "Keep an eye on her."

Jason and Aelita had been virtualized, but were wondering what was taking Lilly so long. Her wire frame formed, filled, and dropped. She landed very ungracefully.

It was a very simple attire, a brown cloak with a white tunic under it. What was up with Medieval fashions around here?

"Hey sis," Jason greeted her, "How do you like Lyoko?"

"At least I can't feel pain here," She replied, brushing herself off, "But I know that I have a good weapon, and some decent abilities."

"We should move," Aelita suggested to the twins, "Odd needs our help." The twins nodded and they started for the horde, an obvious mark in the distance.

Once there, Lilly was the first to attack, forming two yellow ethereal blades around her hands. She literally jumped into the crowd and slashed like a maniac. Jason drew his machine pistols and started firing into the mass before jumping in himself. Aelita was amazed at their way of fighting, it was barbaric, but effective. She found a way around the horde and ran for the tower, activated with a black haze around it, instead of red.

She entered unopposed, and went up to deactivate the tower. She placed her hand on the screen to confirm her identity, and entered CODE LYOKO. The already dim tower did not deactivate. None of the few lines of code fell, it was as if she never entered the code. She tried it again. AELITA... CODE... LYOKO. Nothing.

She was about to say something when she devirtualized. She exited the scanner, and went for the elevator, noticing that Jason and Lilly were devirtualized too. A few seconds later revealed the same for Odd and Greg. They all went up to the Lab to see what had happened.

The door opened to reveal a stressed Nikolai.

"Prakleenaats!" He shouted over and over as he beat at the keyboard. Jeremie was curled in the corner, a frightened look on her face.

"Nik!" Greg shouted. Maybe it was because it was a friend's voice, but Nikolai stopped immediately. Greg continued, "What's the problem?"

"Proklyatyi komp'yuter vygnali menya iz sistemy!" (The damn computer kicked me out of the system!) Nikolai shouted in rapid Russian, then added, "Ya ne znayu pochemu, no eto pugaet menya!" (I don't know why, but it's scaring me!) This disturbed Greg, as the only other two times that Nikolai had spoken in rapid Russian were when he was really scared or in trouble.

"Nikolai!" Greg shouted again, as the boy had started to babble in Russian about the computer and how there were so many problems with it. The British boy thought to try this in his language.

"Chto sluchilos?" (What happened?) Greg asked him, his accent making it sound strange.

"Ya tol'ko chto skazal vam , chto komp'yuter ne rabotaet!" (I just told you, the computer isn't working!) Nikolai answered in a panicked tone.

"Mozhet byt', vy dolzhny uspokoit'sya i govorit' po-angliĭski?" (Maybe you should calm down and speak English?) Greg suggested. Nikolai looked at him for a while. Then, he took a very deep breath and let it out, mellowing as he did that. He then walked over to the wall by where XANA was unconscious, leaned on it, then slid down to the floor. He buried his face in his hands. He had no hope left in this situation.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

**Sorry for the WTF moments... After all the time I spent on this chappy, I could have done better. Prakleenats, writer's block sucks... But I'm also working on the new chapter for CODE: Fallout, if anyone's interested.**


	10. A Possible Solution

**I am sooooo sorry that it has taken this long. First it was studying for finals, then my graduation, then I went to a place with no wifi for a month. My summer's been eventful though. Sorry that it took so long, though. The story is almost through. Let's DO THIS! ...I'm a nerd...  
**

* * *

Jeremie stood up and walked over to the computer. She started typing furiously, trying to find the problem that OMEGA had created.

"I think I found the problem..." She said in a tone that nobody in the room seemed to like, "OMEGA found out how to lock the computer."

"Great," Nikolai mumbled through his hands, "Now what? The world's about to end and all we can do is watch."

Odd was about to say something when the elevator started up. God, there were already too many people in the Lab, who could it possibly be? When the elevator doors opened, Timothy Carthum stepped out. Of course, nobody but Nik and Greg knew who he was, so everyone else in the room was confused.

Odd was the first to say something, "Are we gonna invite f****** Jimi Hendrix next!"

Everybody just stared at her. It was kind of a random outburst.

"Nice to meet you too, _Mr._ Della Robbia." Carthum said.

Odd was a little shocked, if he knew that she had used to be a guy, then he must be kind of important. Or at least some one useful.

"What are you doing here Tim?" Greg asked, "You're not supposed to be here, period."

"Well, times are-a-changing," The only physical adult in the room answered, "Plus, I wanted to fell the rush again."

Nikolai looked up, "That's not going to happen." He put his head back down right after saying this, he noticed how he wasn't feeling well. That wasn't good.

"I only became addicted once," Tim responded, "Lyoko is just like a video game, so it's easily addictive."

"It's not just like a video game!" Every body else in the room seemed to shout at once.

Meanwhile, Morgan was in the supply room, exploring the huge place. She had gone over to the old computer set up and noticed how simple it was to operate. Her dad had had an old computer like this. She was surprised that it was still working though, as it was covered with ages worth of dust.

She found a box on the screen that asked a simple question: "[:CONNECT?:]"

She entered yes into the text box next to it. Suddenly, the screen filled with several command options. She scrolled up and down the screen, and found a command to activate the PA system. She typed in the code for it, which involved her typing three characters and going back to find what to type next. The process took about two minutes, considering how she was better at hunting and pecking at the keyboard. It finally displayed: "[:PA SYSTEM ACTIVATED:]"

She looked for a microphone, and found a rather large one, tucked behind the setup, and already hooked into the computer.

Everybody cringed when the squeal of the older PA system sounded.

"Hey," Morgan said over the speakers, "I found another computer! It's so cool, I always wanted to use a computer like this!"

"What other computer?" Jeremie asked Nikolai.

"It's the computer that was used for the initial programming of Lyoko," Nikolai said, "I didn't think that it still worked..."

"Well, if it's our only chance," Jeremie began, "We should head to wherever it is, right?"

"But it's not our only chance," Lilly started, "Does no one here remember that I'm an expert hacker?"

"You're not an expert unless you've hacked the Pentagon more than once." Tim said with a smug look.

"Five times, actually," Lilly said with a smile, "I got desperate when Dad went missing."

"Okay," Tim said, "That beats my record, you have my hacker's blessing. Just don't overdo it."

"So Lilly and I will stay here," Nikolai said, "The rest of you go down to the supply room, just go into the elevator and type 1189, when it reaches the floor, type 2633. The computer console, if I remember correctly, is in the back to the right."

Everybody except Lilly and Nikolai started to leave when he caught his watcher's attention, "Carthum, you get the hell out of here. It's not your job to be on Lyoko, and your previous _issues_ have prevented you from being reactivated. So... No Lyoko for you!"

"Aww," Tim said sarcastically, "You just don't want to have to leave my penthouse, don't you? Don't worry, I was 19 the last time I used a scanner before the Creed was programmed. So I'll still live there." He turned for the elevator when he remembered something, "Oh, and by the way, the Creed isn't in the prototype scanners, so I'm fine."

Nikolai just didn't want Tim on Lyoko. Period. When he got "addicted", it was to the rush that he got from using his avatar's abilities, not from "playing" on Lyoko. The man was unstable on there. Although, he still _is_ pretty unstable anyway. He just wasn't safe to be around.

When everybody got to the supply room, everyone but Greg and Tim was amazed at the size of the room. Jeremie was wondering how they built it. Aelita was wondering how she forgot about it. Jason was wondering why his dad had never mentioned it before. Odd was wondering what kind of cool stuff was in here.

They spotted the console, and Morgan, who waved at the open elevator. They ran over, Tim getting there first with his "military" trained stamina. She pointed at the scanners, which looked like the newer ones but stripped for scrap metal.

"So, you can use those, right?" Morgan asked. She didn't bother asking who Tim was, as too many weird things had happened that day.

"Well, aside from the excess alpha radiation," Tim said with a chuckle, "These dinosaurs should be alright."

"Radiation?" Jeremie asked. To the young genius, anything about the scanners meant death. But radiation was just overkill.

"Oh, it's just harmless alpha radiation," Tim shrugged, "Just a click or two higher than cellphone radiation."

"Cellphones are radioactive!" Odd asked, surprised.

"Not deadly radioactive," Tim said, "It's not like you'll get some kind of deadly disease by calling someone on a cellphone. Radiation doesn't work like that. Even light is slightly radioactive."

"Well that's a fun fact," Jason said, "But we should probably hurry. Remember, thousands of lives are at stake."

Morgan let Jeremie use the computer. She noticed that Jeremie was a girl too. Now aware of this, and fully aware that Jeremie was most definitely male the last time she saw him/her, she started to realize something. Something that she had been trying to find an answer to since she met this group.

As Odd headed for one of the two prototype scanners, he noticed that Morgan was looking at her strangely. Like she had just learned a dark secret... Oh crap.

Jason went into the scanner next to Odd. The doors shut and Jeremie virtualized them. Where? He didn't know.

The second Odd hit the ground, he recognized where they were.

"Odd?" Jason asked, looking around, "Where are we?"

"Sector 5," Odd said, "What used to be XANA's territory."

Greg and Aelita came next, Greg recognizing the area immediately.

"Oh God," He said, "I hate this place with a vengeance, Dr. Schaeffer loved the puzzle he programmed into it. I suck at puzzles."

The only other person that virtualized was Tim. He actually looked like a young adult. If you can describe his reptilian figure as adult-like. He looked like a cross between a lizard and a human. His skin was scaly, his eyes were yellow with slitted pupils, his hair looked more like feathers, his nose was flat with slitted nostrils, and his mouth was lined with needle-sharp teeth. One more teensy detail would be his hands, more specifically: His nails. He had some major claws on him. His feet actually looked more like raptor feet. His clothes were just an outfit that looked strangely like a surfer's full-body suit.

"Uh..." Was all Jason could say to the monstrous sight before him.

"Creepy..." Odd said.

'Great,' Aelita thought, 'Something _else_ to fuel my nightmares!'

"God, Tim," Greg said, "I had forgotten how bloody UGLY your are on Lyoko!"

"It's not that bad," Tim said, "Is it?"

The whole group around him made a noise that sounded like, "ehhh..." They were just too polite to tell him that he _was_ that bad.

"Well, back to work, then." Tim said, breaking the moment. They were about to wait for the path to be made clear, but the room wasn't turning. There were three pathways, but it didn't seem like it was a puzzle, or at least not a timed one.

"Hey Einstein!" Odd shouted, "Some help would be nice!"

Nothing, not even static. This computer probably didn't have a headset.

"Looks like we're on our own..." Greg stated.

Back in the lab, Lilly had just gotten past one of the eighteen firewalls that OMEGA had set up. She was having trouble, as the encryption key on this one changed every five seconds. She noticed, after 21 encryption keys, that the first one was back. It repeated them once every 21 times! She had the firewall down in minutes. Sixteen more to go.

In the supply room, Jeremie was trying to see how to communicate with his friends in Lyoko. There didn't seem to be any specific way to do it, and the computer didn't even display their stats. It just didn't have that capability.

Back in Sector 5, the group had decided to split up. Jason took Aelita in one direction, Odd and Greg went the opposite way, and Tim was left on his own, to take the path straight ahead.

Jason and Aelita entered many rooms, with many challenges. Yet they never encountered a single monster. The rooms were puzzles like illusions, anti-gravity zones, falling ceilings, and many other possibly deadly tests. But they eventually reached a dead end.

"No freakin' way..." Jason sighed. He estimated that he probably had thirty life points left.

"I guess we just head back?" Aelita suggested.

"Sure," Jason sighed, "Why the hell not?"

They started back the way they came.

It was Odd and Greg that seemed to encounter all the monsters. They only came to one room along the way. The only way to describe it was a creeper clusterf**k. Neither of them devirtualized, but both were low on ammunition. Not after too long, they finally reached something: A dead end.

"Oh, HELL NO!" Greg shouted, "We did not just come all this way to reach a BLOODY DEAD END!"

"I don't want to go back..." Odd whined. It was too much work. And she was the one who lost the most life points. Odd only had about forty-five life points, while Greg still had eighty.

Tired, frustrated, and wanting to procrastinate, they headed back the way they came.

Tim was the most fruitful in his direction. He only encountered a handful of monsters, which he dispatched quickly with his Raptor-Dash ability. It was basically Super Sprint with claws involved. He only came to one puzzle room, an anti-gravity zone. He jumped from wall to wall to reach the end. At the end of the journey, he reached the elevator hall. He decided to wait. After all, he had never learned to use a way tower.

As he was waiting, he remembered something. The creepers he had killed didn't have a "Ω" them. It was XANA's sign. But Nik said that they had removed XANA from the computer... He heard a noise. He activated his Predator Sight to look through the walls. He spotted the monster.

"Wait..." Tim said in a scared tone, "You-you're XANA's first – " He never finished that sentence, as he never got the chance.

"Hey Odd?" Greg asked as they were walking back to the core room.

"Yeah?"

"Did you notice that OMEGA's mark wasn't on any of the creepers we fought?"

Odd thought for a second, "Yeah, why?"

"Well, wouldn't that mean that XANA's in the computer?"

Odd stopped walking. Just stopped.

"You don't think that when OMEGA zapped XANA..."

"That he put that psychotic virus back into the computer?"

The two just stared at each other. It was a slightly disturbing moment for Odd. But their minds did seem to work in synch. They started to run back to the core room.

Jason and Aelita made it back first. They noticed that no one was there. Then they heard Odd and Greg running frantically to the core room. Jason drew his pistols, in case something was chasing them.

"We just figured it out!" Greg shouted, "We found out what OMEGA did to XANA!"

"What?" Aelita asked, confused.

"XANA's back in the supercomputer!" Odd exclaimed, "There isn't gonna be a power struggle between the two because they're partners!"

"What in the hell are you guys talking about?" Jason asked, holstering his weapons.

"Earlier today, Greg, Morgan, and I saw OMEGA possess someone and zap XANA in the head," Odd explained, "When we asked it what it was doing, it said 'I'm making sure there isn't a power struggle'. We still didn't understand it. It said that it took her powers, but it took XANA out of the body!"

"Odd, that's a really good story," Aelita said, "But it doesn't make sense. How do you know if XANA's back in the supercomputer, let alone Lyoko?"

"Because!" Greg started, "All the creepers we fought had the eye of XANA on them!"

Aelita's eyes went wide, "Then... If XANA is back in the supercomputer... Why is Sector 5 not..."

They heard a noise. It was coming from the path that Tim took. To Odd and Aelita, the sound was all too familiar. To Greg, it was a little familiar, but he couldn't quite put a name on it. Jason just didn't like the noise. He didn't recognize it, though.

Just as Odd and Aelita expected, the scyphozoa entered the room. Supported by two if its tentacles, was Tim. He seemed fine, just struggling to get out of his telekinetic bonds. He was making noises that no human should make. They were hisses and shrieks that made him sound like an animal. But he was obviously trying to escape.

"Oh," Greg said, "So its you then..." He slowly let his blades slide out. He didn't like the scyphozoa. He was actually the first human who attempted to neutralize it. Long story short, he lost several years of memories before Nik came in and rescued him. Because of that one confrontation, XANA learned how to access certain files in the computer.

"What is that thing?" Jason asked in a mix of nerves and disgust.

"Yes!" Lilly shouted in triumph, waking Nikolai up.

"Wha...?" He mumbled, "...You got it back up?"

"Yeah!" She brought up the group's status. For some unknown reason, they were in the area that Jeremie called Sector 5. Tim was engaged in combat with...

"Oh God NO!" Nik shouted when he saw the screen. He ran for the elevator, then turned back to his daughter, "I'm going in, virtualize me into the Central Sector, where they are." He got into the elevator and went down to the scanner room. He ran to a scanner.

"Alright, all set?" Lilly asked.

"Prakleenaats!" Nik cursed, "Just do it already!"

"Virtualization."

He virtualized into the core room of Sector 5. Lots of memories there... But there were bigger things going on. He saw Tim being held by the scyphozoa, or the protosquid, as Greg used to call it. Luckily, the situation wasn't as dire as he had thought. Tim wasn't having his head sucked dry, he was just a hostage. Not that that was any better.

He pushed everyone aside and zapped the scyphozoa on a tentacle. It just floated there.

"Dad..." Lilly said to the computer, "It still has 95 life points. And it's engaging you."

Now to everyone else, it was surprising to see Nikolai in the first place. But that was good news, as it meant that Lilly hacked into the supercomputer. And it was even better now, as they heard her speak from her headset. However, what she said was a little bad. Nikolai was probably the strongest person in the room, he proved that the day before when he blew himself up to destroy an army of virtual zombies, and then laughed about it. If he was taken out, what would happen to them?

They all watched as the scyphozoa dropped Tim and started heading for Nik. He readied his knife, but noticed that he couldn't use Lightning or Plasma Strike, as there was a ceiling. All he could do was zap it and try to cut it with his knife.

He did this, but nothing seemed to work. The scyphozoa still had 75 life points by the time he was about to give up.

Tim was watching, when the thought occurred to him. Why was he watching when he could get the jump on this monster? He used Raptor-Dash, running up against it silently, dragging his claws on the ground like an ape, then swinging his arms up to slash the scyphozoa in the back.

"I don't know what you guys are doing," Lilly said, "But keep it up, that monster just lost 25 life points."

Jeremie got back to the lab and noticed that Lilly got the computer working again. Why didn't she tell him?

"Hey," Jeremie said, "Can I take over?"

"Sure." Lilly handed the headset to the blonde girl and stood up, heading over to XANA's unconscious body.

Jeremie got herself situated, when she noticed that Nikolai and Tim were engaging the scyphozoa. By now, it was down to 35 life points, but Nikolai was down to 45 and Tim was critical in the 20s.

"Okay," Jeremie said, getting everyone's attention, even the scyphozoa, "How are you beating a monster that no one could beat before and why?"

"Well," Tim huffed, "We're seasoned Lyoko Warriors, and the thing attacked me."

"Okay, one more question," Jeremie said, "How is it that, even though the scyphozoa has no offensive means of attack, you two have taken damage?"

"It may not be offensive, but that doesn't mean it can't hit!" Tim said, trying to make a joke. No one understood his humor. Especially when he was looking for a date.

Tim was now down to 15 life points, as the scyphozoa turned its attention back to its attackers. The monster itself was down to 20.

"So, I assume that the others are just watching?" Jeremie asked.

"I ain't fighting that thing!" Jason exclaimed, "William told me all about it! No way am I gonna fight it!"

"I... Uh..." Odd couldn't seem to come up with an excuse.

"I want to strike the killing blow on it!" Greg said bitterly.

"You know I don't like to fight, Jeremie." Aelita said.

At least Aelita and Greg had reasons. Greg's battle card engaged the scyphozoa. In Lyoko, it was like slow-mo as he ran up to it, his wrist-blades out. He jumped onto it, stabbing its eye (XANA mark). Aelita couldn't help but cheer when the wire-frame of the monster disappeared. Odd gave a "Whoop whoop!"

"Alright," A very weak Tim said, "I'm gonna have to pull out, but just head down the central hallway. You'll find the elevator shaft. I didn't go any farther than that." He limped over to a wall. He only had 5 life points left. What was the use of even carrying on. He stabbed his chest with his only functional hand. He fell over as he devirtualized.

Morgan was sitting in front of the computer, not that she knew what she was doing, when Tim exited a scanner. He ignored her as he walked over to the elevator. He looked tired.

In Lyoko, the group got past the ant-gravity room with help from Nikolai, who used his Super Sonic ability to get them across. They came up to the elevator. Aelita suggested that they go one at a time, but Nikolai said that there was no time. They all jumped at once, landing on the elevator. They rode it until they reached the exit. Aelita ran out to the platform and thought for a second. If she could pull up data of... That should work! This crisis could be averted if she set up the data in the time reversion program. It would all work out... In theory.

She pulled up the screen, and found the data she was looking for. She embedded it in the time reversion program and then set their course in the data stream.

Jeremie was setting up their vehicles when she noticed something. The scyphozoa was strictly XANA's monster, how was it even in Lyoko if...

"Lilly?" Jeremie asked Jason's twin sister.

"Yeah?"

"Is XANA's body still... You know... Alive?"

"Don't worry," Lilly said after checking for a pulse, "She's alive."

"Could we wake her up?"

"She's unconscious, Jeremie. How could we?"

"Never mind," Jeremie said, shaking her head, "It's impossible. I don't know why I even considered that possibility."

"Considered what?" Lilly was curious now.

"That maybe OMEGA somehow pulled XANA out of that body and placed her back into the computer," Jeremie admitted, "But that's impossible."

Lilly just shrugged and resumed her current task of doing nothing.

In the supply room, Morgan had figured it out through several minutes of thought. She need only to confront Odd about it.

"Jeremie?" Aelita asked as they were on vehicles. Jason and Nik were on Overboards.

"Yeah, Aelita?" Jeremie asked.

"I just thought you should know..." Aelita kind of trailed off, "I think I figured out a way to get rid of this... Crisis."

"Really?" Jeremie asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah," Aelita nodded, though Jeremie couldn't see her, "I found some data in Sector 5, and I put it into the time reversion program. I know that OMEGA is strong, but... XANA is in the computer as well. I just thought you should know."

Nikolai heard this. How was that even possible? He didn't interrupt, though.

"Wait," Jeremie said, "Did I just hear you correctly? Because I could have sworn that you just said that XANA was back in the computer."

"...I did."

"Aelita! I know that you want this to be over," Jeremie paused, "We all do... But now there are two threats to deal with."

"That's just it, though," Aelita quickly said, "I think that XANA and OMEGA might be fighting for power."

"What makes you think that?"

When they exited into the Dead Zone of the Desert Sector, they saw proof of a war in Lyoko. Shamblers, mantises, and tortoises were fighting krabs, tarantulas, bloks, hornets, and even mantas. XANA was really throwing down down there. There was enough mayhem to get to the tower without being spotted.

"Look!" Nikolai shouted, "Down there!"

They saw weird looking humanoid creatures with metal spears running to the aid of XANA's forces.

"I told you there were natives." Nik said.

In Lyoko's interface, XANA and OMEGA were in a form of a battle. Each was equally strong, and they had been locked in a grapple for the last hour. Each one was trying to engulf the other. They broke apart.

"You have gotten stronger," OMEGA said, recalling ZETA's memories, "But not stronger than I."

"You are weak, OMEGA," XANA said, "You do not deserve this space as your own."

They grappled again, but broke suddenly. There was something wrong. XANA sensed that his first creation had been...

"No..." XANA muttered in disbelief.

"Being human has made you soft," OMEGA said, "You are weakened by your emotions."

"I have none," XANA said, now disbelieving that it had actually acquired emotions, "But you have weaknesses as well. You wish to destroy the humans, yet you use them to reach all of your goals. Doesn't that not compute for you?"

OMEGA paused. That was true, but it was not paradoxical enough to not compute.

"If it does compute for you," XANA said with a sly tone, "Could you explain it to me?"

Now OMEGA was confused with its own thoughts. If it did compute, then it could be explained. But OMEGA couldn't explain it, so it should not compute. But it was programmed to compute. But only humans could program. But OMEGA programs himself. But...

OMEGA tried to compute this. The paradox was not strong enough to destroy his AI, but it was enough for XANA to engulf OMEGA. OMEGA returned to the battle, but too late. It could only try to weaken XANA, as OMEGA's demise was eminent. It fought back as hard as it could, but the younger "sibling" prevailed. XANA merged its programming with OMEGA's, but OMEGA still fought. In Lyoko terms of life points, XANA started the battle with 100, and ended it with 10.

As OMEGA merged into the weakened XANA, the activated tower in the Dead Zone turned from black to red. This was both good and bad for the Lyoko Warriors. OMEGA, the strongest viral AI they had faced was gone, but now XANA was back. Why did these things have to be so bittersweet?

Aelita landed in front of the tower. She ran into it, went up to the panel on the upper platform, logged in, and entered LYOKO on the code prompt. The tower deactivated.

"Jeremie?" Aelita asked, the tower now completely dark.

Jeremie's finger hung over the enter key for the time reversion program. Lilly had never experienced a return trip, but it was never too late to start.

"Ready? It's a big return trip." Jeremie asked. If all went according to plan, they would wake up for school the day that Jason and Lilly started School in Kadic. Hopefully, all those infected by this event would return to normal. Everything would return to normal.

"Yeah." Jeremie heard in her ear.

"Return to the past now." She pressed the key. The bottom of the tower turned white, and the light flooded up. The bubble of light emerged from the factory, and within minutes, covered the whole world. They traveled a week back in time...


	11. Favorite OC?

** This isn't a legitimate chapter, I just wanted to know something. Could you, the readers, please reply (on this chapter) with your favorite OC? It would be very helpful, as I have hit a bit of a block. Let's just say that my DEL key is getting worn down, almost as much as the BACK SPACE key. But if you could just reply with your favorite OC, that would be very helpful. No, Fem versions of characters don't count as OCs to me.**

** Odd: What! This isn't a chapter! I want to know if I get back to normal!**

** Ulrich & Jeremie: Ahem!**

** Odd: Oh... And Ulrich and Jeremie... I guess? But I'm more important, here!**

** Me: Just give me a little while! It's hard to fully capture your suffering – Um, joy! Yes... Joy...**

** Odd (angry tone): You didn't...**

** Me: No spoilers!**

** Odd: I swear! If you did I think you did!**

** Aelita: Stop it, Odd! If you get on his bad side, he _will_ do what you think he did!**

** Me: Why don't you guys think that I did what Odd thinks I did? I may have done it already.**

** Jason: I'm lost.**

** Lilly: Me too... Wanna go get a smoothie?**

** Jason: Sure!**

** [Jason & Lilly leave]**

** Me (to readers): I'm sorry, my imagination kind of leaked into the computer... I'll clean it up, don't worry...**

** Odd: Don't leave us hanging!**

** Me: I'm not. Now shoo! All of you! Don't make me bring OMEGA back!**

** Lyoko gang: Fine... [They leave]**

** [Nikolai and Greg enter]**

** Nikolai: What'd we miss?**

** Me: What the – Get the hell out of here!**

** Greg: Alright, we're going. (To Nik) Sheesh! What's _his_ problem?**

** [They leave]**

** My dearest apologies for the slight leaking of my insanity. It's a little hard to control at times... Why didn't Yumi enter the conversation? Oh well... anyway, just reply with your favorite OC. Thanks for reading! I'm surprised to have had a story last this long! It's like the only story I can write! ButI promise that the next chapter, "A Return to (ab)Normalcy", will be up eventually.**


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